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AMERICAN  RENAISSANCE 


A  REVIEW  OF  DOMESTIC  ARCHITECTURE 

ILLUSTRATED     BY    NINETY-SIX 
HALF-TONE    PLATES 


BY 

JOY  WHEELER  DOW 

w 

ARCHITECT 


NEW     YORK  : 

WILLIAM   T.  COMSTOCK 

MCMIV 


N/f  7^0  5 


Copyright,  1904,  By 
Joy  Wheeler  Dow 


Press  of  J    T-  I'itt'e  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


PREFACE 

This  review  of  American  Renaissance  originally  ap- 
peared as  a  series  of  papers  in  the  "  Architects  and  Build- 
ers'' Magazine^'  and  the  interest  shown  in  them  as  they 
were  brought  out  and  the  later  inquiry  for  these  nmnbers 
of  the  Magazine  have  led  the  publisher  to  suggest  the  pro- 
priety of  putting  them  in  more  permanent  shape. 

With  this  in  view  the  author  has  carefully  collated 
the  articles^  added  some  new  illustrations^  and  in  some 
cases  the  plates  have  been  enlarged  where  the  subjects 
seemed  worthy  of  fuller  representation  than  was  possible 
in  the  limited  space  allowed  in  the  Magazine. 

The  book  is  intended  to  be  an  iynpartial  outline  history 
of  American  domestic  architecture  from  Colonial  times  to 
the  present  da\\  and  the  salutary  influence  upon  it  of  what- 
ever has  been  good  in  past  building  epochs. 

How  well  the  subject  has  been  presented^  it  remains  for 
the  readers  of  the  following  pages  to  judge. 

The  Author. 


259840 


CONTENTS 


6i 

79 


Chapter  Page 

1.  Ethics  ..,<,...      17 

IL  Art  and  Commercialism  .  .  ,  .30 

III.  Thp:  Ancient  Regime  and — Andrew  Jackson      40 

IV.  Humble  Beginnings  of  a  National  School    ,      51 
V.  The  Grand  Epoch 

VI.  Early  19TH  Century  Work 

VII.  The  Transitional  Period 

VIII.  Reign  of  Terror — Irs  Negat 

IX.  Fashion  in  Architecture 

X.  Adaptation 

XI.  Concerning  Style 

XII.  Conclusion     , 

Index     ,  .  ,          . 


ivE  Value 

.  108 

, 

.  118 

• 

.  132 

. 

.  149 

•        • 

.  t56 

•        e 

"  173 

LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Frontispiece — Garden   Front  of  the   Bennett   House,   New   Bedford. 
Epoch  1840. 

PLATES. 

I — In  an  Old  Time  Renaissance  Garden. 

The  Governor  Smith  House  at  Wiscasset,  Me. 

n — Doorway,  Washington  Square,  North,  New  York  City. 

Ill — Pickering  House,  Salem,  Mass.     Erected  a.d.  1649. 
Cole  Flouse,  Farmington,  Conn. 

IV — If  you  want  atmosphere  and  plenty  of  it,  go  to  Salem. 
Historic  Atmosphere  in  a  Modern  Dwelling, — Silver- 
gate. 

V — Shirley-on-the- James. 

American    Renaissance    Dwelling    by    an    imitator    of 
Richardson.     Date  about  1890. 

VI— Doorway  at  Bristol,  R.  I. 

VII — American  Renaissance  and  Analysis. 

VIII — The  Newly  Invented  Architecture  and  Analysis. 
Eastover,  Terrace  and  Peristyle. 

IX — Eastover  :  Garden  Front. 

X — Not   every    Architect    is   Able   to   Give   you    this    At- 
mosphere.     Page  House,  Danvers,  Mass. 
Money  will  not  buy  the  Cotton  Smith  House. 


List    of  Illustrations 


PLATES. 

XI — Victims    of    Commercialism,    Belmont    Houses,    New 
York  City. 

Chimney-piece,    American    Renaissance.     Designed    by 
T.  Henry  Randall. 

XH — Simplicity    of    Art,    Wadsworth    House,    Middletown, 
Conn. 
Efflorescence  of  Commercialism. 

Xni — ]\Iantelpiece,  American  Renaissance.     Epoch  1806. 
Orne-Ropes  House,  Salem.    Epoch  1720. 

Both  name  and  identity  of  its  designer  have  in  all  probability  been 
irrevocably  mislaid  in  oblivion,  but  he  was  an  architect. 

XIV — Doorway,  Means  House,  Amherst,  N.  H. 

XV — jMunro-French  House,  Bristol,  R.  I.    Epoch  1800. 
These  apprentices  essayed  no  stunts. 
An  Ancient  Farm-house  at  Durham,  Conn. 

XVI — So  far  as  teaching  architectural  art  is  concerned  it 
must  be  admitted  that  our  public  schools  have 
been  a  dead  failure. — Modern  Farm- house. 

Type  of  Farm-house.     Epoch  end  of  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury. 

XVII — Peristyle  to  a  House  in  Wyoming,  N.  J.  (1897). 
American  Renaissance,  1899. 

XVIII — Detail,  Princessgate,  1896. 

"A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing,"  etc. 

XIX — Wyck,  Germantown.     Epoch  a.d.  1700. 

XX — Doorway,  Philadelphia  Club. 


List    of  Illustrations 


PLATES. 

XXI — Derby-Ward  House,  Salem,  Mass.     Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury. 

Souvenir    of    Abigail    and    Deliverance    Hobbs,    two 
alleged  witches  of  Topsfield,  Mass. 

XXII — Modern  Cottage  with  a  Germantown  Hood. 
Modern  Cottage  with  a  Dutch  Hood. 

XXIII — Germantown  Motive  Applied  to  a  Modern  Cottage. 
Type  of  Early  Connecticut  House,  Stratford,  Conn. 

XXIV — Type  of  Early  Connecticut  House,  ]\Iiddletown,  Conn. 

XXV — Johnson  House,  Germantown,  Pa. 

House  at  Hackensack,  N.  J.     Eighteenth  Century. 

XXVI — House  at  Bogota,  N.  J.     Eighteenth  Century. 

XXVII — ]\Iount  Vernon-on-the-Potomac.     River  front. 

XXVIII — Mount  Vernon-on-the-Potomac.     West  front. 

XXIX — A  Salem  Gateway,  Nichols  House. 

Hoppin  House,  from  the  close,  Litchfield. 

XXX— House  of  Captain  }kIcPhsdris  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 

XXXI — Doorway  at  Warren,  R.  I. 

Chimney-piece,  American  Renaissance,  1899. 

XXXII — ]\Iorris  House,  Germantown. 
Wister  House,  Germantown. 

9 


List    of   Ilhistratioyis 


PLATES. 

XXXIII— Wyck,  Germantown. 

Terrace  and  Garden  Front  of  a  House  at  Wyoming, 
N.  J.,  1899. 

XXXIV — John  Cotton  Smith  House,  Sharon,  Conn. 
The  Deming  House,  Litchfield,  Conn. 

XXXV — Ford  Mansion,  JMorristown,  N.  J.     Eighteenth  Century. 
Doorway  with  Hood,  Lynn-Regis,  1897. 

XXXVI — Morris  House,  Philadelphia. 

XXXVII — Winter  View  of  Eastover. 

Rosewell,  Gloucester  County,  Va 
A  Ghost  of  the  Grand  Epoch. 

XXXVIII— De  Wolf-Colt  ^lansion,  Bristol,  R.  I.     Epoch  1810. 

XXXIX— Local  Color,  Old  Philadelphia. 

XL — House  with  the  Eagles.  Bristol,  R.  I. 
The  Norris  House,  Bristol,  R.  I. 

XLI— Chestnut  Street,  Salem. 

XLII — West  approach  and  entrance  to  De  Wolf-IMiddletown 
House,  Bristol,  R.  I.     Built  in  180S. 
The  Back  Buildings  of  Philadelphia. 

XLITI — The  Captain  White  House,  Essex  Street,  Salem. 

XLIV — Doorway,  Silvergate. 

Doorway,  Watkinson  House,  ]\Iiddletown,  Conn. 

XLV — Watkinson  House.     Epoch  18 10. 
Benefit  Street,  Providence,  R.  I. 


List    of   Illustratmis 


PLATES. 

XLVI— IModern  Chinincy-piece 

XLVII — Grace  Church  Rectory,  New  York  City. 

XLVIII— No.  23  Bond  Street,  New  York  City. 

Doorway  on  East  Fourth  Street,  New  York  City. 
The    Sargent    House    (Common    East),    New    Haven, 
Conn. 

XLIX — Sun  Dial,  Grace  Churcli  Rectory. 

L — House  of  Airs.  Richmond-Dow,  Warren,  R.  I. 
View  from  the  close,  same  subject. 

LI — House  on  High  Street,  ]\Iiddletown,  Conn. 

Bennett  House,  County  Street,  New  Bedford. 

Ln — Doorway,  New  York  City. 

LHI — The  De  Zeng  House,  Middletown,  Conn. 

The  Roberts  House,  Rittenhouse  Square,  Philadelphia. 

LIV — No  I  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 

Waterbury  House,  Fifth  Avenue  and  Eleventh  Street, 
New  York. 

LV — Remaining  Half  of  the  Colonnade,  New  York  City. 
TA'pical  architecture  of  the  transitional  period. 

LVI — ■'  And  that  house  with  the  coopilows  his'n." 

A  Fifth  Avenue  ]\Iansion  during  the  Reign  of  Terror. 

LVH — "  I  think  that  Dante's  more  abstruse  ecstalics,"  etc. 

LVHI — ■■  There  were  the  sincere  radicals " 

LIX — ■  And  the  Scaramouches." 


List    of  Illustrations 


PLATES. 

LX — Franco-American  Roof.     Typical  example. 

Jacobin  architecture  was  at  least  symmetrical. 

LXI — "  I  never  was  so  glad  to  get  home  in  my  life." 

LXII — Ultra-fashionable  Queen  Anne  architecture. 
Fashionable  House,  Eastlake  School. 

LXIII— Bellwood,  Madison,  N.  J.    Epoch  1878. 

LXIV — A  Queen  Anne  House  at  Short  Hills,  N.  J.     Frederick 
B.  White,  architect. 
An  Ultra-fashionable   Colonial   House  of  the   Present 
Day,  1904. 

LXV — A    Country    House,    San    Mateo,    Cal.      Bruce    PriCv, 
architect,  New  York. 

LXVI — Doorway  at  Sharon,  Conn. 

LXVn — The  Chateau  of  Chenonceau. 

LXVHI— Kingdor,  Summit,  N.  J. 

Canterbury  Keys,  Wyoming,  N.  J. 

LXIX — The  Louvre,  Paris. 

LXX— House  of  W.  K.  Vanderbilt,  Fifth  Avenue  and  Fifty- 
second  Street,  New  York  City. 

LXXI — Lambton  Castle,  England. 
LXXn— Haddon  Hall.  England. 
LXXHI— Charlecote  Hall,  England. 
LXXIV — Hampton  Court,  Wolsey  Palace. 
LXXV — Hampton  Court,  South  Palace. 
12 


List    of  Illustrations 


PLATES. 

LXXVI — Chambord,  "The  Valois  Shooting-box." 

LXXVII— Azay-le-Rideau.      The    celebrated    coup    d'iril    of    the 
chateau. 

LXXVIII— Elevation  of  a  Country  House  for  Mrs.  H.,  at  Morris- 
town. 

LXXIX — Kingdor,  front  elevation. 
Kingdor,  detail. 

LXXX— A  Cottage  at  East  Orange,  N.  J. 

LXXXl— Doorway,  Bristol,  R.  I. 

LXXXII— Mitchell  Cottage,  East  Orange. 

LXXXIIl— Detail,  Mitchell  Cottage,  East  Orange,  N.  J. 

LXXXIV— Princessgate. 

Princessgate,  rear. 

LXXXV — Eastover,  the  west  front. 

LXXXVI— Searles  Cottage.     Exemplifying  architectural  style. 

The     Modern     American     Dwelling.        Exemplifying 
fashion. 

LXXXVII — Style  and  the  picture.     IMiddletown,  Conn. 
Detail  in  South  Eighth  Street,  Philadelphia. 

LX  XX VIIT— Detail,  Silvergate. 

LXXXIX — Miss  Simplicity — her  house. 
Detail,  Princessgate. 

XC — Green  Tree  Inn,  Germantown. 
13 


List    of   Illustrations 


PLATES. 

XCI — Princessgate    (modern)    developed    from    Dutch    and 
English  Farm-house  jMotives. 
Try  to  have  the  rear  of  your  house  as  attractive  as 
the  front. 

XCII — Biltmore,  in  North  Carolina. 

XCIII— House  of  H.  W.  Poor,  Tuxedo,  N.  Y. 

XCIV— House  of  H.  W.  Poor,  Tuxedo,  N.  Y. 
Phillips  House,  Lawrence,  L.  I. 

XCV — Garden  Gate  at  Wyoming,  N.  J. 

Window  of  a  Dining-room,  Wyoming,  N.  J. 
Edgar  House,  Newport,  R.  I. 


14 


AMERICAN  RENAISSANCE 


AMERICAN    RENAISSANCE 

CHAPTER    I 

ETHICS 

The  magnificence  of  this  subject,  even  oi  a  single 
branch — the  domestic  phase — is  disproportionate  to  a 
review  in  one  vokime,  in  the  scope  of  which,  I  tear,  I 
cannot  achieve  much  more  than  a  respectable  introduc- 
tion. But  even  an  introduction,  like  the  overture  to  an 
opera,  is  better  begun  at  the  beginning. 

Civilized  man,  and  especially  one  of  Anglo-Saxon 
descent,  is  a  home-loving  creature.  To  him  the  dwell- 
ing-place stands  for  his  most  important  institution. 
The  arts,  sciences  and  traditions  he  pursues,  mainly 
as  they  are  to  minister  unto  it,  and  its  fruition  is  the 
goal  of  life.  About  this  dwelling-place,  then,  there 
must  be  a  very  great  deal  to  be  said,  indissolubly  asso- 

^7 


A?ncricafi   Rcfiaissance 

ciated  as  it  is  with  everything  in  hte  worth  having — 
one's  childhood,  parents,  children,  wife,  sweetheart,  and 
next  to  these  one's  own  personal  comfort — one's  hours 
ot  leisure  and  recreation.  Therefore,  just  so  much  as 
domestic  architecture  departs  in  an  impersonal,  artificial 
way  from  whatever  relates  to  or  reflects  these  associa- 
tions, just  so  much  does  it  err — does  it  fail.  It  will  be 
obvious,  upon  a  moment's  consideration,  that  any  cold- 
blooded practice  or  discussion  of  academic  formula?, 
alone,  looking  to  the  development  of  American  domes- 
tic architecture,  is  hopelessly  inefficient. 

The  home  one  builds  must  mean  something;  besides 
artistic  and  engineering  skill.  It  must  presuppose,  by 
subtle  architectonic  expression,  both  in  itself  and  in 
its  surroundings,  that  its  owner  possessed,  once  upon  a 
time,  two  good  parents,  four  grandparents,  eight  great- 
grandparents,  and  so  on  ;  had,  likely,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, uncles  and  aunts,  all  eminently  respectable  and 
endeared  to  him ;  that  biensiance  and  family  order  have 
flourished  in  his  line  from  time  immemorial — there 
were  no  black  sheep  to  make  him  ashamed — and  that 
lie  has  inherited  heirlooms,  plate,  portraits,  miniatures, 


PI.ATK   1. 


IN  AN  OLD-TIME  RENAISSANCE  GARDEN.. 


THE  GOVERNOR  SMITH  HOUSE,  WTSCASSET,   ME. 


Ethics 

pictures,  rare  volumes,  diaries,  letters  and  state  archives 
to  link  him  up  properly  in  historical  succession  and 
progression.  We  are  covetous  of  our  niche  in  history. 
We  want  to  belong  somewhere  and  to  something,  not 
to  be  entirely  cut  off  by  ourselves  as  stray  atoms  in 
boundless  space  either  geographical  or  chronological. 
The  human  mind  is  a  dependent  thing  and  so  is  hap- 
piness. We  may  not,  indeed,  have  inherited  the  house 
we  live  in ;  the  chances  are  we  have  not.  We  may 
not  remember  that  either  of  our  parents  or  any  of  our 
grandparents  before  us,  ever  gloried  in  the  quiet  pos- 
session of  as  ideal  a  homestead  as  is  illustrated  in  Plate 
I  to  convey  the  atmosphere  intended ;  but  for  the  sake 
of  goodness — for  the  sake  of  making  the  world  appear 
a  more  decent  place  to  live  in — let  us  pretend  that  they 
did,  and  that  it  is  now  ours.  Let  us  pretend  that  God 
has  been  so  good  to  us,  and  that  we  have  proved 
worthy  of  His  trust.  With  this  amount  of  psycholog- 
ical preparation,  I  believe  it  is  possible  for  every  culti- 
vated American  man  or  woman  to  approach  the  subject 
of  American  Renaissance  architecture — domestic  archi- 
tecture—  in  the  true  spirit  of  understanding. 

19 


A7nenccm   Koiaissance 

By  American  Renaissance  I  allude  to  no  "  American 
eclectic  style."  That  term  "  eclectic  style,"  which  so 
frequently  crops  out  in  treatises  upon  architecture,  were 
you  to  follow  it  up,  would  be  found  to  signify,  as  a 
rule,  merely  American  nonsense  and  aberration.  And 
I  suppose  there  is  no  nation  which  may  show  such  an 
imposing  array  ot  architectural  nonsense  as  the  United 
States  during  the  last  fifty  years  of  their  independence. 
Certainly  no  nation  has  evolved  a  national  style  of 
architecture,  intentionally,  as  is  constantly  urged  upon 
American  enterprise.  Such  a  thing  could  have  no  his- 
toric value,  while  it  could  not  escape  being  vulgar  and 
monotonous.  Characteristic  architecture  is  of  very  slow 
development,  and  although  there  have  been  building 
epochs  of  remarkable  activity,  in  none  is  the  progress 
appreciable  from  year  to  year.  American  Renaissance 
differs  from  that  of  other  countries  only  as  it  has  been 
affected  by  the  local  conditions  and  requirements  of 
America.  Good  Renaissance — I  regret  there  is  a  sight 
of  building  that  is  bad — is  like  good-breeding,  pretty 
much  the  same  the  world  over,  differentiated  only  by 
local  color  or  custom. 


_.,'[  PLA'rE  II, 


DOORWAY.   WASHINGTON  SQUARE  NORTH,    N.   V.   CITV 


Rtlncs 

The  predominant  local  color  which  distinguishes 
American  Renaissance  has  been  given  to  it  by  what 
has  been  our  great  national  building  commodity,  i.  e., 
wood.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  built  of  stone  when 
they  had  the  money  to  pay  tor  it,  as  does  everybody 
else ;  otherwise,  people  in  new  countries  fall  back  upon 
a  less  expensive  material.  Our  less  expensive  material 
was  wood.  Both  stone  and  wood  have  iirain,  and 
have  to  be  used  with  the  same  careful  re<jard  to  it. 
Whether  we  build  our  columns  up  of  stone  or  wooden 
sections — latitudinal  in  the  one  case,  longitudinal  in 
the  other — to  support  a  cornice  also  constructed  in  sec- 
tions according  to  the  convenient  sizes  of  commerce 
for  the  particular  material,  makes  no  difference  to  the 
canons  of  art  so  long  as  we  are  not  trying  to  deceive  or 
to  imitate  one  material  with  another  simply  with  that 
end  in  view.  It  is  extremely  doubtful  if  our  American 
ancestors  were  ever  guilty  of  premeditated  deception. 
Their  material  was  an  honest  material ;  it  had  to  be 
fashioned  in  some  way,  why  not  after  the  manner  of 
the  Renaissance'?  In  our  own  day  ot  numerous  short- 
comings in  matters  architectural    it    rarely    enters  the 


Atnericaji   Renaissance 

head  to  deceive  upon  this  point.  Notwithstanding  the 
tremendous  resources  now  at  command  we  yet  prefer 
wooden  columns  to  stone  ones  tor  dweUing-houses. 
As  national  wealth  has  increased,  however,  there  has 
been  that  natural  tendency,  of  course,  to  carve  the 
Renaissance  details  of  stone,  and  the  white  marble 
porches  of  Washington  square,  North  (see  example, 
Plate  II)  may  be  cited  as  splendid  bits  of  American 
Renaissance,  But  if  we  go  further,  and  by  reason  ot 
accumulated  affluence  erect  the  entire  structure  of  the 
new  Colonial  house  in  stone — columns,  cornices,  win- 
dow and  door  casings,  etc.,  strange  to  say  we  lose  an 
indefinable  charm — a  certain  warmth  and  personality 
with  which  American  history  has  invested  wood. 
Besides,  the  fashion  and  style  of  Renaissance  motive 
and  detail  is  as  suitable  to  wood  as  it  is  to  stone;  and 
if  the  first  named  material  is  not  quite  so  durable  it 
is  much  more  easily  repaired  and  replaced. 

In  English  Renaissance,  local  conditions  commonly 
restricted  the  use  ot  wood  to  the  interiors.  In  Amer- 
ican Renaissance,  the  plenitude  of  this  material  enabled 
the  Colonial  builders  to  use   it  for  the  outside  as  well, 


,,.^  ,,^fLATE  III. 


PICKERING  HOUSE,  SALEM. 
Erected  A.  D.    1649. 


COLE   HOUSE,   FARMINGTON,  CONN. 


Ethics 

and  with  great  advantage,  for  it  permitted  the  Colonist 
to  elaborate  the  elevations  of  his  dwelling,  gaining 
thereby  warmth,  cheerfulness  and  grace,  and  all  easily 
within  his  means.  Without  the  slightest  danger  of 
bankruptcy  he  could  proceed  to  embellish  the  curtilage 
with  arched  gateways,  ornamental  fences,  terrace  rails 
and  summer-houses  ad  lib.  I  have  selected,  to  suggest 
such  amplitication,  the  photograph  of  an  old-time  Re- 
naissance garden  in  the  rear  of  the  Watkinson  house 
at  Middletown,  Connecticut  (Plate  I),  also  the  photo- 
graph of  an  ancient  house  at  Farmington  (Plate  III). 
The  latter  has  a  beautiful  Renaissance  gateway  which 
would  be  an  impossibility  in  stone.  I  believe  it  is 
called  the  "  Cole  house,"  and  that  its  ovv^ner  is  a  cousin 
of  President  Roosevelt.  It  serves  my  purpose,  too,  on 
another  count— its  color  scheme.  I  am  not  prepared 
to  say  just  why  two  particular  shades  of  common 
brown  paint  should  be  so  effective  for  certain  kinds  of 
Colonial  houses.  Certainly,  this  one  frankly  disavows 
any  allegiance  to  architectural  stonework.  It  fairly 
proclaims  itself  to  be  a  wooden  building,  while  all  we 
can  say  is  that  those  unerring  sensibilities  within  us  by 


American   Renaissance 

which  we  distinguish  right  from  wrong  are  satisfied 
beyond  the  shadow  of  doubt,  and  so  we  have  no  great 
need  to  question  the  whys  and  wherefores  upon  a  purely 
ethical  point.  In  Salem,  Massachusetts,  there  are 
numerous  examples  of  brown  Colonial  houses.  Ex- 
tremely effective  in  themselves,  they  make  the  most 
beautiful  photographs  imaginable  (see  Plate  IV). 
Within  the  radius  of  a  few  squares  you  may  obtain 
half  a  dozen  equally  charming  glimpses  of  Colonial 
scenery.  Indeed,  if  you  want  atmosphere,  and  plenty 
of  it — go  to  Salem. 

Had  America  been  settled  and  colonized  two  cen- 
turies earlier,  under  a  Tudor  king,  most  likely  there 
would  have  been  a  Gothic  influence  in  the  early  work. 
It  is  difficult  to  know  in  our  day  how  it  could  pos- 
sibly have  been  exploited  in  wood,  and  there  is  no  ex- 
cuse for  our  attempting  anything  of  the  kind  at  this 
time  of  unlimited  resources  in  the  building  trade.  Bat- 
tlements, keeps  and  moats  were  Feudal  protectory 
measures,  and  would  have  been  worse  than  useless 
constructed  of  anything  inflammable.  About  the  only 
legitimate  Gothic  architecture  expressed  in  wood  which 

24 


i^LA  TFv  iV. 


IF  VOU   WANT  ATMOSrilERE  AND  PLENTY  01"  IT,  GO  TO  SALEM. 


HISTORIC  ATMOSPHERE  IN  A  MODERN  DWELLING. 

"  Silvergate,"  Summit,  N,  J.     (1901.) 


Ethics 

has  stood  the  test  of  time,  is  represented  by  the  17th 
and  18th  century  chalets  of  Switzerland,  and  I  doubt 
if  even  Yankee  ingenuity  could  have  evolved  anything 
half  so  good.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  have  no  ancient 
Gothic  exemplars.  It  is  said  that  the  old  Pickering 
house  on  Broad  Street  in  Salem,  built  a.  d.  1649  (see 
Plate  III),  was  a  replica  in  wood  of  a  Jacobean  tav- 
ern in  England,  namely,  the  Peacock  Inn,  Derbyshire. 
The  venerable  dwelling  at  Salem  has  passed  through 
many  vicissitudes,  and  in  1842,  when  the  influence  of 
John  Ruskin  was  so  misused  in  America,  the  Picker- 
ing house  was  largely  remodeled,  so  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say,  to-day,  how  successful  an  adaptation  of 
Jacobean  work  this  was.  But  even  Jacobean  archi- 
tecture is  scarcely  Gothic  architecture  since  England 
incorporates  it  with  all  the  rest  of  her  Renaissance. 

Sir  Christopher  Wren  was  supreme  upon  the  archi- 
tectural stage  of  England  when  the  prosperity  of  the 
American  colonies  was  sufficient  to  warrant  the  aca- 
demic study  of  domestic  architecture  upon  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  and  Sir  Christopher  was  the  very  life  of 
the  English  Renaissance  in  its  stricter  sense.     During 

25 


American   Re?iaissance 

this  great  history-making  epoch,  the  giant  forests  of 
America  came  into  excellent  play  for  following  out — it 
often  in  a  crude  and  kind  of  miniature  way — whatever 
the  prodigious  architect  executed  in  stone.  There  was 
no  bit  of  classic  detail  from  either  Athens  or  Rome, 
transmitted  to  London  through  what  I  may  call  the 
"  Florentine  Clearing-house  "  presided  over  by  Palla- 
dio,  Sansovino,  Scammozzi  and  their  contemporaries, 
but  what  could  be  carved  more  readily  in  wood ;  and 
time  and  history  have  thrown  a  glamour  over  all  this 
wooden  development  of  ours,  and  established  its  right 
of  succession  with  a  hall-mark. 

But  the  main  point  in  favor  of  Renaissance  archi- 
tecture, it  must  be  remembered,  was  that  it  lent  itselt 
extremely  well  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  home-teeling.  It 
emanated  from  a  land  that  had  reached  the  pinnacle  ot 
attainment  in  the  arts  of  peace — Italy — and  it  was  so 
easy  to  fashion  and  make  minister  to  most  Anglo- 
Saxon  home  requirements.  Luckily,  the  Colonial  build- 
ers were  conservative  artificers,  neither  so  clever  nor  so 
restless  as  this  generation,  or  they,  certainly,  could  not 
have  resisted  the  eloquence  ot  talse  prophets  and  knav- 

26 


Ethics 

ish  architectural  promoters  and  fakirs  who  came  their 
way.  And  we  should  have  been  deprived  ot  our  illus- 
trious inheritance,  which,  happily,  cannot  be  taken 
from  us  now. 

Fortunately  tor  American  architecture,  Sir  Christo- 
pher Wren  was  what  we  would  call  in  our  vernacular 
"all  right."  He  had  a  good  thing,  an  inexhaustible 
mine  for  supplying  ideas  for  all  manner  ot  buildings, 
and  he  worked  it  for  the  best  interests  of  all  concerned. 
His  reputation  and  success  have  fired  many  a  modern, 
would-be  Wren  to  dare  to  try  the  experiment  of  some 
rival  kind  of  architecture.  Such  is  the  aspect  we  have 
now  of  the  late  H.  H.  Richardson  and  his  Roman- 
esque style  (Plate  V). 

Trinity  Church  in  Boston  was  a  superb  design  v.hen 
it  was  finished,  and  continues  to  be  so  to-day.  But  its 
best  influence,  I  fear,  has  been  perverted  forever.  A 
quarter  of  a  century  ago  Richardson  was  hailed  as  an 
apostle  equal  with  Wren,  and  America  went  mad,  not 
in  a  Romanesque  revival,  but  in  a  carnival  of  it,  by 
which  I  mean  to  say  it  was  burlesqued.  It  is  sad  to 
reflect  that  such  a  genius  as  the  man  who  designed  the 

27 


American   Refiaissatice 

church  in  Boston  should  have  allowed  himself  to  suc- 
cumb to  the  wiles  of  the  flatterers  enough  to  be  drawn 
into  the  disgraceful  saturnalia  which  followed  so  close 
upon  his  brilliant  debut. 

Now  the  home  of  the  Romanesque  was  not  Florence. 
It  pretended  to  nothing  of  the  court  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent,  which,  if  it  stood  for  anything,  was  ele- 
gant living.  Mediaeval,  benighted  south  of  France 
was  the  home  proper  of  the  Romanesque,  and  its 
proper  medium  of  expression — churches,  cloisters,  and 
monasteries.  What  could  such  a  style  of  architecture 
contribute  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  home '?  Absolutely 
nothing.  And  when  Trinity  Church  was  finally  com- 
pleted, Richardson  had  practically  exhausted  every- 
thing there  was  in  the  newly  borrowed  style.  He 
could  have  gone  on,  probably,  raising  ecclesiastic  edi- 
fices, designing  an  occasional  library  or  two  in  good 
form,  without  directly  cribbing  from  his  masterpiece; 
but  neither  he  nor  his  imitators — and  they  were  legion 
— cared  a  fig  for  the  ethics  or  proprieties  of  architec- 
ture. They  appear  to  have  been  actuated  alone  by 
the  same  principles  of  expediency  which  govern  the 

28 


PT  AtE  \\ 


SlilRLL.V-U-\-lIlK-JAMES.      Scr  Chapter  !' 


AMERICAN  ROMANESQUE  DWELLING,   BY  AN   IMITATOP   OF  RICHARDSON. 

Date  about   iSgo. 


Etili 


cs 


"  New  Art "  movement.  They  invented  an  exagger- 
ated architectural  grammar,  without  doubt  derived 
from  the  old  medi:eval  catheeirals  in  tlic  sout!i  ot 
France,  but  so  vulgarized  as  to  establish  a  clear  ca.c 
of  libel  for  those  eminently  respectable  [)rototypes. 
This  grammar  the  rabid  reformers  proceeded  to  apply 
to  every  kind  of  secular  building  in  America,  hnally 
to  American  dwelling-houses  themselves.  They  ilid 
not  reckon  with  their  grandparents  tor  an  instant,  not 
they.  They  apparently  took  the  keenest  delight  in 
walking  rough-shod  over  every  sacred  home  memory. 
They  openly,  insulted  the  very  ancestors  to  whom  they 
owed  existence.  But  the  balance  ot  good  and  evil 
there  is  in  the  world  cannot  be  disturbed  so  suddenly 
or  arbitrarih'.  Outraged  history  was  not  slow  to  assert 
itself  and  after  a  while  would  have  no  more  ot  the 
dwelling-house  Romanesque.  I  regret  to  sa)  that  Rich- 
ardson's imitators  were  not  the  last  of  their  race,  and 
that  there  have  been  other  and  as  rabid  architectural 
reformers,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  in  the  next  chapter. 


29 


CHAPTER    II 


ART     AND     COMMERCIALISM 


Not  very  long  ago  two  enterprising  architects  in  a 
Western  State  succeeded  in  inventing  a  characteristic 
style  of  architecture  of  some  merit.  I  do  not  know 
its  name.  I  am  not  sure  that  it  has  any.  But  as  it  is 
likely  to  be  somewhat  in  vogue  for  several  years  to 
come,  I  may  as  well  print  herewith  a  simple  recipe  for 
combining  its  essential  elements  : 

Recipe :  First,  you  must  endeavor  to  find  some 
valuable  fragment  ot  ancient  Greece  or  Rome,  prefer- 
ably a  pedestal  tor  a  statue,  base  ot  a  column,  or  even 
the  shaft  itselt  and  capital,  which  should  not  be  too 
attenuated,  however,  and  is  to  be  translated,  if  neces- 
sary, from  a  cylindrical  torm  into  a  rectangular  one. 
Now,  here   is  the  scheme  : 

Punch  your  elevations  tull  of  rectangular  holes  in 
seemly  rows,  divide  them   into   latitudinal   sections  by 

30 


PJATE  ^■J 


DOORWAY,    T.KISTOL,   K.    I. 


Art  atid  Co7nmerciaUsm 

several  belt  courses  of  East  Indian  flat-carvine:,  and  bore 
a  semi-circular  opening  or  a  series  of  them  (they  may 
be  semi-elHpses  it  preferred)  upon  the  ground  hne  of 
the  projected  edifice  to  afi:brd  a  mode  of  ingress  and 
egress  corresponding,  proportionately,  to  the  same  con- 
venience designed  tor  bees  in  a  bee-hive.  Next,  pour 
in  Alice  in  Wonderland's  "  Drink  me  "  elixir  to  make 
it  grow,  and  await  results  ot  the  magic  drug.  This  is 
the  critical  moment.  All  must  work  harmoiu'ousK',  and, 
having  reached  the  height  limit  imposed  by  the  elevator 
manufacturer,  perhaps,  quickly  cap  the  building  with 
some  red,  corrugated  tiles,  it  you  choose,  in  the  form 
of  a  Moresque  roof,  ornament  with  lantern  and  flagstaff, 
and,  behold  I — the  charm  operates  I — the  great  American 
"sky-scraper"  ot  a  commercial  city  has  been  achieved. 
It  is  not  within  the  province  ot  this  review  to  enter 
into  a  discussion  ot  the  problem  ot  housing  commer- 
cialism. It  is  odtl  that  nobody  hints  how  posterity  is 
going  to  laugh  at  us,  censure  our  cupidity,  and  even- 
tually raze  every  one  ot  our  hideous  "sky-scrapers" 
that  shall  be  left  standing.  It  is  odd  that  the  present 
congestion   of  Manhattan  as  a  crime  against  decency, 

31 


Americaji   Renaissance 

with  all  the  idle  land  that  is  adjacent  and  available,  is 
not  painfully  manifest  in  this  so-called  year  of  grace 
MCMIV.  But  it  is  within  the  province  of  this  review 
to  say  that  whenever  the  soaring  kind  ot  architecture 
precipitated  itself  upon  the  Anglo-Saxon  dwelling- 
house  there  was  a  tremendous  crash  and  revolution. 
It  was  telescoped,  it  was  flattened — grotesquely  flat- 
tened, but  still  it  was  remarkable  tor  ingenuity,  toi 
cleverness,  and,  above  everything,  for  novelty,  as 
would  be  a  dwelling-house  loaned  by  another  planet. 
So  strange,  indeed,  this  newly-invented  architecture 
grew  that  it  became  simply  impossible  to  prevail  upon 
ancestral  ghosts,  legends  and  tolk-lore.  that  habitually 
are  part  and  parcel  ot  the  habitation  ot  man,  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  a  device  ^  la  mode  that  appeared 
to  be  in  everv  way  so  verv  much  better  suited  to  the 
needs  of  a  Roman  bath-house  after  the  manner  ol 
Alma  Tadema.  The  following  lines  trom  Edgar 
Allan  Poe's  "  Ulalume  "  may  aptly  express  the  injured 
feelings  of  those  sentimental  amenities : 

"  Oh,  hasten! — oh,  let  us  not  linger! 
Oh,  fly! — let  us  fly! — tor  we  must." 

32 


',,,/,\|>i4tE\viii 


<^ 

t/i 

5  =  o  c 

z 

'S. 

2;oS< 

tlJ 

■f 

z 

< 

S 

< 

^  i  *  - 

u 

s 

't1 

0   0  0  o 

:<0  = 


;'!r'^^  Jk 


I'l  Ai  i-.   \  111. 


T=| 


r 


THE  NEWLY  INVENTED  ARCHITECTURE. 

ANALYSIS. 


Moresqvie  Spain lo  per  cent. 

Moresque   Algiers lo         " 

Moresque  California  Mission lo         " 

East  Indian 5         " 


Newly  reclaimed  land 

Chinese  ornament 

Modern  invention,  pure 

Anglo-Saxon  home  atmosphere. 


lo  per  cent. 

5 
50 


EASTOXKK   TERRACE   AND    i'KRIMALE. 


Art  a?id  Commercialisni 

For  convenient  reference  of  the  reailer  a  sample  of 
this  newly-invented  architecture  is  respectfully  sub- 
niitted  (Plate  VIII),  and  a  very  clever  sample  it  is. 
The  inventors  of  the  style  themselves  could  have  done 
no  better;  only  the  irresistible  melancholy  in  the  rlnm- 
ing  ot  Foe's  poem  is  not  easily  put  out  of  the  heatl, 
especially  when,  as  in  this  case,  it  happens  to  be  ex- 
tremely ap[)ropriate.     So  let  us  continue  : 

"  And  we  passed  to  the  end  of  a  vista, 

But  were  stopped  by  the  door  of  a  tomb — 
By  the  door  of  a  legended  tomb." 

Certainly  it  is  unfamiliar  environment  from  which 
one's  mind  naturally  reverts  to  his  childhood  (you 
must  have  had  a  childhood) — reverts  to  the  wondrous 
houses  we  visited  in  the  impressionable  days  of  long 
ago.  Ah,  they  were  a  very  different  kind  ot  houses, 
were  they  not'^* — ^houses  with  significance,  houses  with 
personality,  if  building  material  may  ever  be  said  to 
incorporate  that.  The\'  had  a  history  to  tell.  They 
had  legends,  too.  As  wt  think  ot  them  they  seem  to 
have  been  literally  covered  with  legends,  some  ot  them 

3  33 


American   Renaissance 

cut  with  the  juck-knife  deep  in  the  attic  timbers.  But 
they  were  all  legends  that  appeal  to  happiness.  They 
were  not  the  legends  of  tombs.  And  the  old  sensa- 
tions come  back  to  us  again.  Perhaps  it  is  just  as  the 
afternoon  light  begins  to  fail  so  that  we  can  no  longer 
read,  and  the  sunset  is  very  beautiful. 

No,  no,  the  vagaries  of  geometrical  invention  will 
never  supplant  those  first  loves  I 

For  you,  then,  when  your  lamp  is  lighted — I  hope 
it  is  not  the  dazzling,  i6-candle-power  electric  bulb 
ot  commercialism,  made  still  further  terrifying  by  a 
gorgeous  glass  globe — for  you  I  have  a  treat  in  store 
to  soothe  the  nerves  the  newly-invented  architecture 
has  indescribably  rasped.  It  is  a  "sure  enough"  old- 
fashioned  house.  To  borrow  the  style  of  Ik  Marvel 
in  his  "  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,"  I  can  see  how  you 
will  carefully  {)ut  this  book  where  you  will  not  miss  it 
to  show  your  architect  in  the  morning.  You  will 
remember  tlie  number  of  the  page  that  you  do  not 
waste  the  time  of  a  busy  professional  man  in.  finding 
the  place ;  and  this  is  about  what  you  will  say  to  him : 
"  I    do   not   know  how  good  the  architecture   is,   that 

34 


platp:  IX. 


-— '  I-  2 


*i4       a>       i: 


Ai't  and  Conwiercialisfn 

the  old  house  on  Benefit  Street  in  Providence  represents 
(Plate  VII);  but  I  do  know  it  has  just  the  atmosphere 
that  reaches  the  inner  man,  and  that  is  the  atmosphere 
I  want." 

But  not  every  architect  is  able  to  give  you  this 
atmosphere  (Plate  X).  None  ot  the  architectural 
schools  teach  it,  and  commercialism  in  some  torm 
usually  doles  out  the  architect's  bread  and  butter,  so 
that  he  is  accustomed  in  his  work  to  reduce  your  pro- 
position to  a  cold  calculation  ot  so  much  house  tor  so 
much  money.  He  is  made  to  stnile  grimly  (with  Mr. 
R.  H.  Davis's  kind  permission)  over  what  he  considers 
your  sentimental  impracticality,  then  says:  "We  build 
houses  by  the  cubic  toot,  you  know."  And  after  the 
size,  position,  number  ot  rooms,  etc.,  are  determined, 
then,  whatsoever  art  may  be  applied  just  as  well  as  not 
without  materially  adding  to  the  cost  is  made  to  serve 
as  the  meek  handmaid  ot  commercialism  ;  and  I  must 
say  of  this  applied  art  as  we  see  it  every  day,  exempli- 
fied in  America,  it  certainly  looks  the  part. 

All  through  the  Berkshires,  wherever  a  commanding 
eminence  rises  in  the  midst  ot  natural  loveliness,  the 

35 


A??iencafi   Kenaissance 

bristling  odd  conceits — they  are  not  art — of  the  pro- 
digious captain  of  industry  who  has  made  his  money 
by  always  "  driving  three  in  a  buggy,"  testifies  that 
even  in  his  dwelHng-place  he  calculates  to  get  the 
worth  of  every  dollar,  and  every  dollar  is  made  to 
show — a  veritable  monument  to  his  commercial  sa- 
gacity. But  to  my  mind,  Sharon  in  Connecticut, 
which  lies  some  fifty  miles,  perhaps,  to  the  southward 
of  the  Berkshires,  is  the  most  beautiful  inland  village 
we  have  in  New  England.  Architecturally,  it  is  not 
remarkable  either  for  good  or  bad  work  ;  but  toward 
the  lower  end  of  the  main  street  there  is  one  startling 
beauty  in  the  fabric  of  the  John  Cotton  Smith  manse. 
(See  illustrations.  Plates  X  and  XXXIV.)  As  an 
appreciative  tenant  is  about  vacating,  I  suppose  the 
envious  eyes  of  commercialism  will  soon  light  upon 
this  charming  exemplar  of  Colonial  days  with  an  idea 
of  adding  extensions,  verandas  or  what  not  to  make  it 
"  real  stylish  like."  But  tor  once,  commercialism  will 
be  disappointed,  for  I  am  told  that  money  will  not 
buy  the  Cotton  Smith  house. 

The  despoiler  of  beautiful    landmarks,  however,  is 

36 


PI. A  IF.  X. 


iiiiitiiii.iiiiiiiiiiinn:;iiiiiii^ 


NOT  EVERY  ARCHITECT  IS  ABLE  TO  GIVE  YOU  THIS  ATMOSPHERE. 


MONEY  WILL  NOT  BUY  THE  COTiuN   >M1I11    ll<»r.->i;. 


Art  and  Cof)i??iercialisfn 

rarely  idle.  He  knocks  first  at  one  door,  and  then  at 
the  next.  New  houses  or  old,  it  makes  no  difference 
so  long  as  the  design  be  good,  and  worth  spoiling. 
The  Cotton  Smith  mansion  is  one  bright  partitnilar  ex- 
ception that  goes  to  prove  the  rule,  tor,  ordinarily,  com- 
mercialism suffers  no  rebuke,  and  especially  is  this  true 
of  New  York  City.  Here,  whatever  commercialism 
wants  it  takes  without  more  ado.  A  '^  sky-scraper " 
would  pay  the  owners  of  the  northeast  corner  of  Fifth 
Avenue  and  Eighteenth  Street  much  better  than  the  ad- 
mirable and  famous  twin  mansions  (Plate  XI ),  that  until 
lately  occupied  the  site,  so  this  good  architecture  was 
promptly  sacrificed  to  an  object  which  is  sordid  and  mean. 
But  into  what  absurdities  will  the  all-worshipful  rate 
per  cent,  theory,  which  is  conducive  of  such  splendid 
quantity  and  such  meagre  quality,  not  eventually  lead 
us?  Already,  we  have  a  "fiat-iron  building"  which  I 
have  seen  measured  by  art  standards  in  a  contemporary 
review.  I  mean  to  say  that  such  a  thing  was,  in  all 
good  faith,  attempted.  We  find  the  opinion  expressed 
that  the  "fiat-iron  building"  was  a  necessity,  and  as  a 
necessity  we  should  endeavor  to  make   art  liarmoni/e 

37 


Afucrican   R  efiaissa?ice 

with  it  somehow.  In  all  the  hardness  of  our  hearts  we 
accept  the  greedy  commercial  theory,  iis  the  people  of 
Moses  accepted  the  divorce  bill,  that  "sky-scrapers" 
are  a  necessity  ;  but  they  are  not.  We  should  be  un- 
questionably better  off  without  them.  They  are  only 
the  lame  device  of  the  epoch  in  which  we  live  to  facili- 
tate business  until  such  time  as  we  shall  interfere  with 
our  neighbor's  daylight  beyond  all  endurance,  and  here 
we  must  perforce  desist.  Well,  one  may  toady  to  com- 
mercialism himself,  if  he  likes — if  he  conceives  that 
such  a  course  is  really  going  to  be  to  his  advantage ; 
but  he  cannot  make  art  do  it. 

To  the  contrary,  art  is  itself  a  very  jealous  god,  and 
does  not  permit  the  serving  of  two  masters,  at  least, 
two  such  antithetical  masters  as  itself  and  commer- 
cialism. Art  demands  that  there  shall  be,  first,  a  sink- 
ing fund  absolutely  within  its  own  control,  irrevocable, 
and  forever  charged  off  the  commercial  ledger.  Com- 
mercialism has  no  adequate  sum  of  money  that  is  avail- 
able for  the  purpose.  Because  we  define  art  as  dex- 
terity and  as  cunning,  we  have  been  determined  to 
make  it  fit  the  exigencies  of  commercialism ;  but  we 

38 


PL'ATE  X•J^ 


VICTIMS  OF  COMMERCIALISM. 
The  Belmont  Houses,   Fifth  Ave.  and   iSth  St. 


CIIIMNEV-ITECE,  AMERICAN  RENAISSANCE,  MODERN. 
Designed  by  T.    Henry  Randall,  Architect. 


PLATE  XII 


THE  SIMPLICriY  OF  ART. 
The  Wadsvvorth   House,    Middletown,   Conn. 


EFFLORESCENCE  OF  COMMERCIALISM. 


Art  and  Connnercialism 

have  not  succeeded.  It  is,  indeed,  a  grand  misfit,  be- 
cause we  do  not  define  art  rightly.  Yet  peoj)le  appear 
not  to  want  to  divine  the  true  definition,  no  doubt  on 
account  ot  a  well-founded  premonition  that  it  is  going 
to  be  an  unequivocal  rebuke  to  the  selfishness  that 
exacts  a  certain  rate  per  cent,  ot  return  out  ot  everv- 
thing.  Commercialism  may  deter,  but  cannot  defeat, 
the  enevitable.  Art  means  charity.  Now  it  it  were 
only  that  kind  ot  charity  which  the  lexicon  ot  commer- 
cialism defines  as  the  giving  ot  tithes  ot  whatever  a 
man  possesses  to  the  poor,  we  could  still  manage  as 
did  a  certain  rich  young  man  we  have  read  about  in 
the  lesson.  And  like  him,  not  being  entirely  satisfied 
in  our  consciences  nor  with  results,  we  could  demand,  as 
did  he,  what  we  yet  lack,  what  latent  phase  ot  cunning 
we  have  overlooked  "l  And  it  will  then  become  our 
turn  to  be  the  exceeding  sorrowful  party,  tor  there  is 
no  cunning  about  it.  What  this  generation  yet  lacks 
— we  have  quite  everything  else — is  a  sufficiency  ot 
the  vast,  comprehensive  form  of  charity  that  was  in- 
tended to  be  the  end  and  object  ot  every  lite.  That  is 
the  synonym  of  art. 

39 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    ANCIENT    REGIME    AND ANDREW    JACKSON 

Veneration  tor  ancestors,  and  tor  what  ancestors 
knew,  has  not  been  regarded  as  an  American  virtue. 
Yet  there  was  a  time  entirely  beyond  the  memory  of 
this  generation  when  traditions  were  rehgiously  handed 
down  and  respected  in  America.  It  is  heresy  to  sup- 
pose that  the  Colonial  builders  were  au  fait  in  the 
science  of  aesthetics.  They  were  not.  There  was 
more  excuse  tor  ignorance  upon  their  part  than  there 
is  for  ignorance  upon  ours;  but  architecture  as  a  fine 
art  was  as  little  understood  by  the  tarmer  at  large  in 
pre-revolutionary  times  as  is  evidenced  by  the  modern 
farmer  whose  concrete  ideas  upon  the  subject  are  so 
charmingly  set  torth  in  the  curiosity  I  have  been 
fortunate  to  secure  for  this  chapter  (Plate  XVIII). 
Only,  no  Colonial  tarmer  would  have  dared  to  perpetu- 
ate such  originality,  even  though  he  dreamed  it  in  his 

40 


PLATE  Xll'l.' 


MANTELPIECE,  AMERICAN  RENAISSANCE.  EPOCH   iSo6. 


I     BOTH    NAME    AND    IDENTITY    OF    ITS    DESIGNER    HAVE    IN    ALL    PRuBAIJILITY 
!         BEEN  IRRETRIEVABLY  MISLAID  IN  OBLIVION,  BUT  HE  WAS  AN  ARCHITECT. 

Orne-Ropes'  House,  Salem. 


The  Ancient  Regime  and — Andrew  Jackson 

dreams,  which  is  the  only  way  he  could  possibly  have 
conceived  it.  The  unalienable  right  of  the  American 
citizen  to  build  whatever  he  pleases  has  precedents 
running  backward  only  to  the  4th  of  March,  1829, 
when  that  [popular  hero.  General  Andrew  Jackson,  was 
inaugurated.  This  appears  to  have  been  the  red-flag 
signal  of  license  tor  all  the  vast  output  ot  American 
Jacobin  architecture,  which,  of  course,  is  not  to  be  con- 
fused with  the  Jacobean  of  England,  the  seemingly  in- 
nocent contraction  of  the  suffix  having  the  effect  of  a 
disenchanter's  wand. 

Previous  to  this  advent  of  rabid  democracy  there 
linfrered  a  vestige  ot  a  certain  code  ot  social  restrictions 
which  once  regulated  architecture  almost  as  absolutely 
as  it  did  the  private  affairs  of  every  family  in  the  land. 
Once  upon  a  time  the  house-builder  would  have  no 
more  thought  of  departing  from  what  I  shall  call  "  the 
straight  and  narrow  path  "  of  precedent  in  architecture 
than  he  would  have  been  guilty  ot  a  religious  detection 
such  as  wilfully  absenting  himself  from  meeting,  or  an 
ethical  defection  such  as  purposely  remaining  single. 
This  abrogation  of  personal  liberty  bore  rather  roughly, 

41 


Am  eric  mi   Renaissance 

perhaps,  upon  the  individual;  but  it  was  the  very  sal- 
vation ot  architecture,  being  the  censorship  to  which 
we  are  indebted  for  whatever  true  inspiration  we  are 
enabled  to  draw  out  of  the  Colonial  exemplars.  "  Pre- 
cept "  was  the  word  upon  which  the  American  Renais- 
sance was  founded.  The  Colonial  builders  builded  as 
they  were  taught  to  build,  not  as  they  may  have  wished 
to  experiment.  And  let  us  see,  for  a  moment,  who 
their  masters  were,  that  we  may  be  in  a  position  to 
understand  something  of  the  reason  for  their  success. 

While,  in  olden  times,  the  architect  and  the  builder 
were  often  united  in  the  same  person,  it  must  have 
been  a  very  differently  equipped  individual  from  the 
one  who  awaits  his  customers  behind  the  pretentious 
signboard  thus  lettered  which  nowadays  adorns  the 
front  of  many  a  contractor's  place  of  business;  because 
this  legend  has  come  to  mean  extreme  mediocrity  in 
both  callings.  Nor  does  the  word  "  architect  "  alone 
signify  everything  it  should  in  a  great  commercial  era 
such  as  ours.  I  have  heard  the  head  draughtsman  of 
a  noted  modern  architectural  office  in  New  York  City 
distinguish  one  of  his  principals  from  the  other  partners 

42 


I -I. ATE  XIV. 


DOORWAY,    MKANS'   HOUSE,  AMHERST,   N.    H. 


The  Ancient  KegitJie  and — Andrew  Jackson 

of  the   firm   by   a    very    significant    expression,    viz. : 

"  Mr. is  an  architect T     And  I  am  constrained  to 

discriminate  with  equal  severity  when  I  see  the  ilhis- 
tration  ot  the  usual  "  modern  American  house,"  so 
called,  placed  in  ''deadly  parallel  column"  beside  a 
Colonial  exemplar  erected  a  century  ago.  Nobody,  as 
a  rule,  can  inform  us  who  made  the  drawings  of  our 
fascinating  prototype.  Both  name  and  identity  of  its 
designer  have,  in  all  probability,  been  irretrievably 
mislaid  in  oblivion;  but  he  was  an  architect  I  (See 
Plate  XIII). 

In  some  recent  and  necessary  researches  for  this  and 
other  work  I  have  run  across  the  names  of  a  few  of 
these  architects.  Their  biographies  are  not  to  be  found 
in  libraries,  though  they  merit  shelf-room  beside  those 
of  our  greatest  heroes,  statesmen  and  authors.  Samuel 
Mclntyre  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  and  Russell  War- 
ren of  Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  respectively,  are  two  I 
could  mention  in  particular  that  should  be  done  up  in 
full  levant  with  notes  and  comments  upon  their  work 
and  times,  edited  by  Mr.  Russell  Sturgis  or  some  one 
else  equally  competent  to  do  so.     And  then  the  tun 

43 


American   Re?iaissafice 

of  it  was  that  many  a  most  refined  and  skilful  artificer 
ot  the  ancient  regime  never  considered  the  propriety  of 
adding  the  word  "Architect"  to  his  subscription.  I 
suppose  he  fancied  he  lacked  his  diploma  or  the 
requisite  reputation  afforded  by  some  stupendous  pub- 
lic work.  Yet,  Fouquet  with  his  celebrated  Faux  le 
Vicomte^  or  Louis  XIV  at  Versailles  had  no  better 
architectural  advice  than  had  the  colonists  of  America. 
The  greatest  architects  of  the  world  really  directed  the 
planning  ot  the  Colonial  houses.  Unseen,  the  master- 
hands  and  minds  were  working  through  the  agency  of 
deferential  and  obedient  apprentices. 

These  apprentices  essayed  no — what  boys  denomin- 
ate— "stunts"  (see  Plate  XV),  and  their  masters,  to 
whom  they  frequently  served  life-long  apprenticeships, 
affected  no  "  stunts "  either.  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
himself,  and  Inigo  Jones  never  tried  '^stunts,''  nor  did 
Palladio  in  Italy,  before  them,  nor  even  the  great 
Michelangelo.  Now,  if  there  ever  was  an  architect 
justified  in  exploiting  "  stunts,'"  it  was  Michelangelo, 
to  whom  marble  or  pigments,  chisels  or  brushes  were 
as  subservient  as  to  magic.     But  what  did  this  archi- 

44 


I'LA'i'K  XV 


THESE  APPRENTICES  ESSAYED  NO  STUNTS. 
Munro-French  Mouse,  Bristol,  R.  T.     A.  D.  1800. 


AN  ANCIENT  FARMHOUSE  AT  DURHAM,  CONN. 


The  Ancient  Reghne  and — Ajuirew  Jackson 

tectunil  giant  do  when  sumnioned  to  Home  to  look 
utter  the  construction  ot  St.  Peter's  '?  In  the  eyes  ot 
American  coninierciah'sm,  he  made  a  goose  of  himselt, 
he  simply  missed  the  chance  of  his  life.  He  waived 
jealousy,  he  waived  ambition,  patronage  and  emolument 
because  he  preferred  the  serving  of  God  and  of  his  art 
to  the  serving  of  self  Fancy  such  a  thing  in  our  day  I 
Michelangelo  requested  that  all  the  plans  of  his  illus- 
trious predecessor,  Bramante,  the  original  designer  ot 
the  cathedral,  be  brought  to  him:  and  tullv  appreciat- 
ing the  responsibility  ot  the  complex  work  that  had 
descended  to  him  by  the  righttul  heirship  ot  true  art, 
Michelangelo  emphatically  declared  he  conceived  it  to 
be  his  duty  to  carry  torward  Bramante's  design,  and, 
moreover,  that  wherever  the  intercedent  tinkers  hatl 
departed  from  this  design,  just  so  much  had  they  erred. 
How  strange  this  policy  sounds  placed  in  contrast  to 
the  ethics  of  American  expediency  I  No  tloubt,  the 
mighty  Renaissance  fabric  at  Rome  has  lost  inestimably 
because  this  remarkable  man  could  not  live  to  com- 
plete it.  In  our  day,  we  have  changed  all  that.  The 
main  chance  is  not  now  art — //  is  money.     We  are  still 

45 


American   Refiaissance 

the  America  of  Martin  Chuzzlewit  plus  population. 
Our  greatest  architect  is  our  greatest  "stunt-master" 
and  bears  to  American  commercialism  the  same  rela- 
tionship that  a  certain  society  leader  bears  to  his  equally 
noted  patroness.  And  it  does  not  require  the  perspi- 
cacity of  a  Voodoo  woman  either,  to  see  how  ephem- 
eral, in  comparison  to  the  ages  of  good  architectural 
development,  is  this  modern  American  extravaganza, 
which,  not  unlike  the  airy  creatures  who  enjoyed 
existence  in  the  dream  of  the  White-King  in  Lewis 
Carroll's  classic,  "  Through  the  Looking  Glass,"  is  liable 
to  go  out  of  vogue  bang!  at  any  moment,  upon  his 
majesty's — or  rather  upon  true  art' s — awakening. 

In  Plate  XV  there  is  presented  a  type  of  American 
farm-house  of  the  early  eighteenth  century.  Engraved 
upon  a  tablet  let  into  the  front  wall  of  the  chimney- 
stack  appears  the  impressive  date  1727.  This  house 
is  still  standing  in  an  admirable  state  of  preservation 
nearby  a  quaint  old  village  called  Durham,  in  Connec- 
ticut. It  was  erected  by  a  man  named  Miles  Merwin, 
and  a  lineal  descendant  of  its  builder  still  occupies  it. 
When  he  visited  this  house   last  summer  the   interior 

46 


PILAJB  XVI. 


SO    FAR    AS    TEACHING    ARCIIITEC  lU  KAL    ART    IS    CONCERNED,    IT    MUST    BE 
ADMITTED  OUR  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  HAVE  BEEN  A  DEAD  FAILURE. 


TYPE  OF  FARMHOUSE,   EPOCH   END  OF   iSTH  CENTURY. 


The  Ancient  Regime  a?id — Andrew  Jackson 

impressed  the  writer  fully  as  much  as  the  exterior.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  the  same  influence  came  back  again 
that  rushed  over  my  senses  when  first  I  beheld  the 
worn  steps  to  the  royal  tombs  at  Westminster.  It  was 
so  very  old  and  replete  with  atmosphere!  It  had  so 
much  history  to  tell  that  one's  most  natural  inclination 
was  to  sit  down  quickly  upon  the  roughly  hewn  door- 
steps bedabbled  by  streaks  ot  sunlight  filtering  through 
the  foliage,  and  just  listen.  Ah,  how  ridiculous  it 
would  be  to  imagine  that  the  wonderfully  satisfying 
lines  of  the  root,  the  delicious  overhang  of  the  gable, 
the  relationship  of  the  stone  chimney  and  the  propor- 
tions generally  were  evolved  by  Miles  Merwin  himself, 
out  of  a  printed  book  upon  the  aesthetics  of  design  ! 
For  neither  Miles  Merwin  nor  his  master-builder  may 
be  said  to  have  originated  the  house  they  erected.  I 
do  not  fancy,  for  one  moment,  that  they  ever  contem- 
plated such  an  ill-advised  departure  from  precedent. 
They  had  been  taught  how  to  construct  three  or  four 
different  kinds  of  roofs,  and  they  simply  selected  the 
one  most  suitable  to  the  needs  of  this  case.  It  was  the 
influence  and  teaching  of  more  than  one  great  architect 

47 


American   Renaissance 

that  designed  the  ancient  farm-house  at  Durham.  And 
now  you  need  no  longer  conjecture  why  Colonial  archi- 
tecture is  so  good  and  remains  in  fashion.  You  know. 
Select,  it  you  please,  the  detail  of  the  hooded  en- 
trance. A  modern  house-builder  requested  to  supply 
some  unique  shelter  for  the  doorway  would  understand 
you  to  mean  that  you  wished  him  to  invent  something 
which,  by  the  way,  is  a  task  infinitely  agreeable  to  the 
modern  practitioner.  It  is  safe  to  aver  that  the  adviser 
of  Miles  Merwin,  whoever  he  was,  had  never  invented 
anything  in  his  lite.  He  would  not  have  dared  to  try 
the  experiment  in  architecture,  at  any  rate,  more  than 
had  he  been  the  indentured  apprentice  of  a  Florentine 
architect.  Although  I  can,  very  easily,  imagine  him 
quoting  his  grandsire  that  this  particular  kind  of  hood 
he  was  recommending  to  his  principal,  with  its  deep 
cornice,  was  an  exceptionally  rigid  and  durable  one. 
The  truth  of  which  observation  time  has  sufficiently 
demonstrated.  It  was  "  Old  Hickory  "  who  issued  the 
emancipation  proclamation  to  young  America  absolv- 
ing him  from  the  time-honored  and  universal  fealty  to 
Art.    But  young  America  was  deceived  :   it  was  a  cam- 

48 


PLATE  XVil. 


PERISTYLE     TO  A  HOUSE  IN  WYOMING,  N.  J..   1897. 


AMEKICA-N    RENAISSANCE,   iSgg. 


The  Ancie7it  Regime  and — Andrew  Jaekson 

paign  lie.  Young  America  was  not  emancipated  at 
all.  Another  master  was  set  over  him,  and  that  master 
was  unrelenting  expediency,  who  forthwith  usurped  the 
throne  of  deposed  art.  Perhaps  we  are  just  beginning 
to  suspect  the  ruse  after  seventy-five  years  of  license 
and  anarchy  in  art  matters.  What  we  did  was  simply  to 
exchange  a  legitimate  sovereign  for  a  coarse,  unlettered 
and  brutal  demagogue,  of  whom  every  American,  young 
and  old.  by  this  time,  should  be  heartily  ashamed. 

And  I  think  the  present  generation  is  somewhat 
ashamed  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  our  modern  sys- 
tem of  public  instruction,  liberal  as  it  purports  to  be, 
is  painfully  lame  in  the  department  of  the  arts.  They 
are  like  so  many  sealed  books  to  the  scholars  who  are 
expected  to  shape  our  historv.  The  j)olicy  of  Donna 
Inez  in  Bvron's  great  epic  was  to  wirliold  natural  his- 
tory only  from  her  son's  course  of  studies.  Our  policy 
is  to  disseminate  all  the  natunil  historv  available.  The 
mixed  class  in  physiology  recites  its  lessons  unblu>h- 
ingly.  We  encourage  the  sciences.  The  farmer  builds 
his  house,  to-da^',  with  the  best  of  sanitary  arrange- 
ments;   they    are    nearly  perfect,   he    installs  hot-water 

49 


American   Refuiissa?ice 

heaters  and  electric  lights,  he  keeps  in  touch  with  the 
moving  procession  upon  all  points  save  one. — What 
does  he  know  about  Art  and  American  Renaissance  ? 

The  example  of  modern  farm-house  (Plate  XVI) 
herewith  respecttully  submitted  indicates  the  modern 
farmer's  limitations.  So  far  as  teaching  architectural 
art  is  concerned,  it  must  be  admitted  that  our  public 
schools  have  been  a  dead  lailure. 

But  let  us  not  look  upon  these  things  too  gloomily, 
and  lest  the  reader,  by  this  time,  discover  some  sinister 
intention  upon  my  part  to  slur  the  memory  of  the 
hero  of  New  Orleans,  1  wish  to  state  that,  personally,  I 
have  only  the  greatest  respect  and  admiration  for  a 
man  who  positive!)  refused  to  be  frightened.  Like 
Napoleon,  Jackson  was  unquestionably  the  man  for 
the  hour — the  times,  and  devilishly  bad  times  they 
must  have  been  by  1837  to  have  grown  inimical  to 
the  very  commercial  interests  that  had  let  them  loose. 
By  their  aid,  however,  are  we  not  permitted  to  see  our- 
selves somewhat  as  others  see  us,  so  at  last,  we  shall 
have  discovered  the  true  mission  of  these  times  in  the 
economy  of  art  f 

50 


(j  A\i,JiPK-^t^p^ti^^ 


DETAIL,   PRINCE:SSGATE.     1S96. 


A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thins  ; 
Drink  deep,  or  taste  not,  the  Pierian  spring  ; 
For  shallow  draughts  intoxicate  the  brain. 
But  drinking  largely  sobers  us  again. 


P.tAT-E.'XIX,  ^.'.  . 


WYCK,  GERMANTOWN.     ErOCII,  A.  I).  1700. 

The  charm  that  is  not  deducible  by  mathematics."— Miss  Pollv  Faiufax. 


CHAPTER    IV 

HUMBLE    BEGINNINGS    OF    A    NATIONAL    SCHOOL 

It  is  unfair  to  place  these  humble  beginnings  ot 
American  Renaissance  beside  such  highly  developed 
architecture,  tor  example,  as  English  ''Country  Lite" 
exploits  week  after  week,  under  its  heading  ot  "  Coun- 
try Homes,  Gardens,  Old  and  New  "  as  to  make  one 
beheve  that  England  must  have  an  unlimited  store  tor 
the  magazine  to  draw  upon.  And  this  is  all  the  more 
remarkable  because  one's  recollection  of  English  land- 
scape as  it  reveals  itself  through  windows  ot  the  rail- 
way carriages  along  the  main  routes  of  travel — espe- 
cially along  the  Great  Eastern  road  from  London  to 
Kings  Lynn — distinguishes  it  little  from  that  uninter- 
esting stretch  of  country  which  lies  between  Trenton 
and  New  Brunswick  on  the  Pennsylvania  railroad. 
Evidently,  all  these  magnificent  halls  were  erected  long 
before  the  advent  of  railways,  and  are  in  no  way  affili- 

51 


Atiierican   Kenaissajice 

ated  with  the  vulgar  wake  of  commerciaHsm.  Acces- 
sibility, which  governs  so  largely  in  America,  must  be 
a  matter  of  supreme  indifference  to  possessors  of  great 
estates  in  England,  or,  it  seems  to  me,  the  railway  lines 
would  meander  in  such  a  manner  as  closely  to  skirt 
the  confines  of  a  magnificent  demesne,  occasionally. 
It  is  unfair  to  a  country  whose  visible  architectural  de- 
velopment is  barely  two  centuries  old  to  bring  it  in 
contrast  with  one  where  no  building  is  really  ancient 
without  a  history  dating  backward  three  or  four  hun- 
dred years,  at  least. 

We,  perhaps,  fancy  we  have  in  America  some  mod- 
ern country  estates  quite  worth  while  mentioning  and 
which  might  easily  withstand  the  odious  ordeal  of  com- 
parison ;  but  can  the  reader  name  one  in  the  same  cate- 
gory with  such  a  country  seat  as  is  illustrated  in 
"Country  Life"  for  July  12,  1902,  described  as  "  Os- 
maston  Manor,  Derbyshire  "  (Plate  XXVI) "? — and 
this  is  a  number  of  the  periodical  picked  up  without 
especial  selection — "  Biltmore,"  in  the  North  Carolina 
mountains,  possibly,  with  the  H.  W.  Poor  house  at 
Tuxedo,  New  Jersey,  as  an  alternate  choice,  one  French 

52 


^ 


PLAT!-:  x:x. 


Extremely  humble,  yet  genteel.'' 

DOORWAY,    PHILADELPHIA    CLUB. 
13th  and   Walnut  Streets. 


Humble  Beginnings  of  a   National  School 

Renaissance,  the  other  Jacobean.  But  certainly,  New- 
port, with  its  miserable  crowding  anti  elbowing  of 
American  pretentiousness,  much  of  the  pretentiousness 
belonging  to  the  modern  invention  type  of  architecture, 
offers  no  comparison  at  all.  The  Hunnewell  gardens 
and  some  others  we  have  seen  {)hotogra[)hed  and  dis- 
cussed ot  late  look  more  like  tree  nurseries  than  Re- 
naissance gardens,  while  nearly  all  the  motlern  Ameri- 
can show  places  illustrated  from  time  to  time  in  the 
different  magazines  deal  only  with  that  primitive  kind 
of  splendor  indigenous  to  provinces. 

No,  we  may  not  compare  American  Renaissance 
after  this  manner.  We  are  entirely  too  young  a  nation 
tor  that  kind  ot  architecture  which  presupposes  a  re- 
nowned antiquity  which  we  lack.  But  what  we  may 
do  becomingly  is  to  select  the  homely  and  humble  cot- 
tages of  Great  Britain,  such  cottages  as  the  one  we  are 
shown  where  lived  the  poet  Robert  Burns,  for  instance. 
Place  those,  it  you  please,  beside  the  farmhouses  of  our 
Colonial  regime,  and  then  you  may  be  surprised  to  find 
we  have  something  to  be  proud  of,  even  though  it  be 
the  fashion   to    belittle  these   essentially  good   antece- 

53 


American   Renaissance 

dents  by  modern  architectural  scholars.  1  am  reminded 
herein  of  the  story  that  is  told  of  a  noted  professor  oi' 
music — Kullak:,  who,  having  discovered  that  the  num- 
ber on  the  programme  which  the  orchestra  had  ren- 
dered to  the  great  delight  of  everyone,  was  a  Strauss 
waltz  (it  must  have  been  one  of  the  less  known  as 
"  Autumn  Leaves,"  it  could  not  have  been  the  hack- 
neyed "Blue  Danube,"  which  has  been  so  much  over- 
rated), turned  to  his  pupils,  ever  loyal  to  their  master's 
prejudices,  beside  him,  and  furtively  whispered,  "Well, 
don't  say  anything  about  it,  boys;  but  it's  awfully 
nice  I  "  The  sentiment  thus  expressed  is  the  cultivated 
sentiment  of  the  average  architect  toward  the  early 
Renaissance  of  America.  He  appears  to  be  constrained 
by  some  artificial  position — some  pedantic  make-believe 
that  allows  him  to  acknowledge  the  merit  of  a  Witch- 
Colonial  exemplar  (see  Plate  XXI),  with  only  the 
poorest  kind  of  grace. 

But  I  have  already  explained  why  the  old  stuff 
remaining  in  America  is  so  "  awfully  nice "  as  to 
charm  all  unprejudiced  aiti^ts  who  have  studied  our 
history,  so  that  mystery  about  it,  I  trust,  need  be  no 

54 


PLATE  XXI. 


DERBY-WARD   HOUSE,  SALEM,  MASS.     17TH  CENTURY. 


SOUVENIR  OF  ABIGAIL  AND  DELIVERANCE  HOBBS  (TWO  ALLEGED  WITCHES), 
OF  TOPSFIELD,  MASS.     17TH  CENTURY. 


Humble  Beginnings  of  a  National  School 

long-er.  The  paramount  business  in  hand  is  to  get  rid  of 
American  nonsense,  to  put  it  entirely  out  of  the  head, 
it  possible,  that  nothing  may  stand  in  the  way  of  return- 
ing meekly  and  in  a  receptive  spirit  to  those  ancient 
and  honorable  first  principles  of  ours  which  were  un- 
erring. This  surgical-like  operation  accomplished,  let 
us  see  what  may  be  done  with  the  Derby-Ward  house, 
erected  a.  d.  1680  in  Salem  (Plate  XXI),  to  make  it 
habitable,  convenient  and  desirable  to-day. 

At  this  stage  ot  the  art  of  house-buikling,  upon 
which  subject  there  has  been  so  much  written  and 
published,  an  architect  would  yet  be  considered  plumb 
crazy  who  had  the  temerity  to  submit  such  a  picture 
to  a  prospective  client  as  the  kind  of  house  best  suited 
to  his  needs.  Yet,  why  not"?  Has  the  reader  no 
imagination  '?  Can  he  not  see  how,  given  a  generous 
forecourt,  with  prim  flower  beds,  a  brick  walk  and  box, 
this  frowning  prototype  of  "  Scarlet  Letter  "  morals  and 
punishment  would  take  on  a  very  different  aspect,  its 
repelling  severity  mollified  by  a  little  gracious  environ- 
ment '?  And  we  do  not  stop  here,  by  any  means. 
We  make  a  feature  of  the  entrance,  either  by  the   aid 

55 


Humble  Beghm'nigs  of  a  National  School 

only  contnicts  we  have  signed  with  modern  invention. 
All  the  rest  has  been  of  the  most  conservative  architec- 
tonic development. 

"  But  the  plans!  One  has  to  live  in  the  house  after 
it  is  built,  you  know.  Can  you  make  it  liveable  with 
only  the  one  chimney,  and  that  in  the  verv  centre'?" 
we  are  asked.  I  think  we  can.  Let  me  submit  one 
solution  ot  the  }')roblem,  at  any  rate,  and  you  are  quite 
at  liberty  to  take  it  home  and  improve  upon  it  as 
much  as  you  please. 

These  Witch-houses  are  the  pioneers  of  the  proces- 
sion. Nothing  older  than  they  has  been  able  to  with- 
stand the  vicissitudes  ot  our  erratic  climate's  racket, 
though  contemporary  with  them  are  the  early  houses 
of  Connecticut,  which  have  been  admirably  described 
in  a  book  by  Norman  M.  I  sham,  A.M.,  and  Albert  F. 
Brown.  The  Sumner  house  at  Middletown,  illustrated 
herewith  (Plate  XXI\'),  exhibits  a  method  ot  con- 
struction which  I  believe  is  peculiar  to  the  State  of 
Connecticut  alone.  It  consists  of  a  3-inch  offset  at  the 
second  story,  and  continuing  around  the  four  sides,  the 
gables  projecting  3  inches  more.    A  great  central  chim- 

57 


American  Renaisscmce 


58 


PUt&  xilii<" 


GER^rANTO\VN   MOTIV^E  APPLIED  TO  A    MODERN  CO  r  lAGK. 


TVPE  OK  EARLY  CONNECTICUT  HOUSE.  STRA  TFORD.  CONN. 


i'LAT^/XXlV. 


Humble  Begimiings  of  a  Natiojuil  School 

ney  again  dominates  the  {)lan,  which,  it  is  true,  taxes 
modern  ingenuity  to  make  a  graceful  feature  of  the 
interior.  A  rehc  ot  old  Stratford  (Plate  XXIII)  sup- 
plies another  interesting  type  for  reincarnation.  It  is 
more  generous  in  the  matter  of  chimneys,  hut  has  less 
pitch  to  the  roof  The  photograph  reveals  a  texture 
to  the  shingled  sides  which  we  may  hardly  ohtain  in 
moderii  work,  though  at  a  small  additional  cost,  for  the 
sake  of  art  purely,  we  may  use  the  wide-gauge  shingles, 
but  must  see  that  they  line  accurately,  as  they  do  on 
the  old  house  at  Stratford.  They  are  an  unwarranted 
affectation,  the  ragged  butts  generally  used  to  obtain 
archaic  atmosphere  in  the  houses  of  our  time. 

We  shall  see  that  in  New  York  State  and  in  New 
Jersey  the  Dutc-h  influences  prevailed  in  the  early 
architecture,  and  in  Pennsylvania,  the  German.  It  is 
all  iiood  architecture,  however.  The  Dutch  hoods  are 
habituallv  at  the  eaves,  while  the  German  hoods  which 
separated  the  first  and  second  stories  were  often  carried 
around  the  entire  building,  as  flounces  ujxm  a  skirt 
(see  Plates  XX\^  and  XC).  The  hoods  are  all  fascin- 
ating, thoroughly  architectonic,  yet  how  little  have  they 

59 


American   R enais sauce 

been  studied  and  developed  in  modern  design  I  The 
niceties  of  their  appHcation  and  use  are  Httle  understood 
bv  the  average  architect,  who,  ordinarily,  would  think 
he  was  wasting  his  client's  money  to  exploit  anything 
of  the  kind.  You  see,  he  forgets  that  his  client  has 
spiritual  needs  as  well  as  physical  ones.  The  gambrel 
roofs  of  the  Dutch  houses  have  come  to  be  commer- 
cial commodities  and  are  continually  resorted  to — no, 
are  continually  parodied,  I  mean  to  say — by  modern 
builders  who  cannot  tell  what  this  immutable  art  prin- 
ciple we  are  talking  about  may  be.  They  are  simply 
magnificent,  the  roof  lines  ot  the  old  stone  house  at 
Hackensack,  N.  J.,  shown  in  Plate  XXV,  yet  they  are 
not  good  enough  for  the  modern  inventor,  he  must  try 
some  fancied  improvement  in  the  way  ot  a  grotesque 
pitch,  for  which  he  racks  his  brain.  Of  these  same 
fancied  improvements  I  could  supply  examples  ad  infini- 
tum^ but  they  could  only  pain  the  reader,  however  great 
a  favor  I  might  be  doing  American  commercialism. 

And  now  I  must  pause  again  for  the  present,  because 
I  am  come  to  the  doorway  of  Wyck  at  Germantown 
(Plate  XIX),  and  before  it  the  architectural  critic  pre- 

60 


•    •     ftAT^-X^. 


JOHNSON   HOUSE,  (;ERM  ANTOW  N,    PA. 


_i^'C-4v,  - 


HOUSE  AT   HACKEXSACK.    N.  J.     EARLY    iSTH  CENIL  k\ 


^LATT^.  XX\I. 


HOUSE  AT   BOGOTA,  N.   J.     EARLY  18TII  CENTURY. 


OSMASTON   MANOR.   DERBYSHIRE. 

(From  Knglish  "  Country  Life.'') 


Humble  Begi?i?iings  of  a  National  School 

fers  to  linger  in  silent  admiration — to  told  his  arms  as 
the  musical  critics  used  to  do  when  Patti  was  at  the 
zenith  of  her  powers,  but  while  thoroughly  enjoying 
every  fine  artistic  nuance  of  the  performance,  a  disturb- 
ing premonition  reminds  him — warns  him  that  if  paici 
to  criticise  and  not  to  praise  he  will,  in  all  [)robability, 
lose  his  employment.  They  have  no  bit  of  architec- 
tural detail  in  England  that  the  Germantown  doorway 
need  be  afraid  of  Of  course  you  will  go  into  ecstasies 
over  it;  I  do.  But  you  will  experience  difficulty  in 
finding  an  architect  capable  of  grasping  the  idea  suffi- 
ciently well  for  you  to  incorporate  the  charm  of  it  in 
the  new  house  you  are  planning  to  build.  The  modern 
dwelling-house  is  conceived  so  differently,  plotted  so 
differently,  with  unsympathetic  T  squares  and  triangles, 
and  is  governed  so  strictly  by  materials  easily  milled, 
and  easily  nailed  in  place  by  the  carpenter,  as  to  })ut 
that  element  of  graciousness  which  signifies  so  much 
to  our  lives  and  happiness — that  "  charm  not  deducible 
by  mathematics,"  that  makes  us  think,  and  whereby 
we  eventually  become  better  men  and  women  in  the 
world,  absolutely  beyond  the  pale  of  realization. 

6i 


CHAPTER   V 


THE     GRAND     EPOCH 


Then  there  came  a  time  when  the  legitimate  devel- 
opment and  prosperity  of  the  colonies  produced,  not 
what  the  forcing  box  of  commercialism  has  produced 
— a  moneyed  class  under  obligations  to  no  one — but  an 
aristocracy  whose  noblesse  oblige  vouchsafed  the  encour- 
agement of  architecture  in  common  with  other  arts 
and  refinements.  And  if  there  remain  to  us,  yet  fairly 
intact,  a  representative  town  of  this  aristocracy  that  w^e 
may  go  to  look  at,  to-day,  to  see  what  it  was  like,  I 
should  say  it  was  Anne  Arundel  Town  (Annapolis), 
the  ancient  capital  of  Maryland. 

The  best  description  of  Annapolis  in  that  relation 
which  concerns  us  most — its  fascinating  old  houses  and 
their  history — is  written  by  T.  Henry  Randall  in  the 
"Architectural  Record"  (New  York),  Vol  i.  No.  3. 
Indeed,  I  regard  this  description  as  the  most  valuable 

62 


PLATE  XXVII. 


The   Grand  Epoch 

paper  to  American  Renaissance  that  has  appeared  in 
periodical  literature.  Besides  this  article  on  Colonial 
Annapolis,  wher  in  all  its  remarkable  buildings  are 
duly  accredited  and  illustrated,  editions  de  luxe  in  folio, 
on  Colonial  architecture,  may  also  be  had  of  the  Bates 
&  Guild  Company,  of  Boston,  publishers,  containing 
splendid  photogravures  of  the  Chase  house,  the  Har- 
wood,  Hammond  or  Lockerman  house,*  the  Brice- 
Jennings  house  and  other  enchanting  representatives  of 
our  most  celebrated  regime.  These  revered  authori- 
ties, together  with  Westover,  Shirley  and  Brandon — 
plantations  along  the  James  River — are  so  well  pre- 
sented in  this  way  to  architectural  students  that  I  have 
concluded  to  reserve  the  space  at  my  disposal  to  other 
subjects  which,  while  nearly  as  interesting,  and  exem- 
plifying nearly  as  well  the  particular  phase  ot  our  archi- 
tectural history  under  discussion,  have  a  decided  ad- 
vantage in  that  they  have  been  little  exploited  (with 
the  exception  of  Mt.  Vernon)  in  books. 

But  no  writer  upon  American  Renaissance  can  afford 
to  slight  the  subject  of  Annapolis  in   the  letterpress  of 
*  This  house  is  known  by  three  different  names. 
63 


American   Renaissa?ice 

his  work,  tor  its  didactic  value  is  immense.  The  very 
plan  ot  its  streets  was  formulated  according  to  the 
principles  of  art  uninfluenced  in  the  smallest  degree  by 
America's  ubiquitous  ogre,  commercialism,  which  was 
here  relegated,  by  municipal  ordinance,  to  certain  ex- 
tremely restricted  sections  of  the  city,  beyond  which  it 
trespassed  at  its  peril.  The  relation  these  patches  of 
territory  bore  to  the  whole  equalled,  perhaps,  one- 
fourth.  In  other  words,  the  Annapolitans  looked  upon 
commercialism  as  the  mere  machinery  of  their  house- 
hold, and  the  idea  was  to  sacrifice  no  more  room  to  its 
offices  than  was  absolutely  necessary.  Commercialism 
during  the  grand  epoch  was  essentially  a  steward's  de- 
partment, and  the  Annapolitans  would  have  been  the 
last  people  in  the  world  to  tolerate  its  meddling  with 
architecture. 

Moreover,  Annapolis  stands  for  the  supreme  mo- 
ment of  the  grand  epoch.  It  was  here  that  the  treaty 
of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
was  formally  ratified  in  1784,  and  here  Washington 
went  through  the  ceremony  of  returning  his  commis- 
sion as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  to  the  august 

64 


I 'I,  ATE  XXVIII 


0         7} 

O     -J 


The  Grand  Epoch 

power  whence  it  had  come  to  him.  The  constitution 
itself  owes  its  first  glory  to  Annapolis,  where  the  initial 
proceedings  were  held.  Annapolis  and  American  Re- 
naissance are,  therefore,  indissolubly  associated.  You 
speak  ot  one  and  the  other  follows  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence. The  amplification  of  the  American  dwelling- 
house  was  here  carried  to  a  higher  degree  of  excellence 
and  refinement  than  has  been  elsewhere  attained,  before 
or  since,  for  Annapolis  was  practically  finished  by 
1770,  and,  happily  for  this  generation,  has  staid  so. 

It  is  disappointing  that  there  should  be  no  good 
place  to  "  sup  and  lie  " — to  resuscitate,  a  rather  poetical 
archaism — in  Annapolis,  no  snug  old  travern  with  the 
king's  arms  upon  a  sign-board  still  swinging  over  its 
door.  And  Annapolis,  besides,  is  most  inaccessible 
and  expensive  to  reach;  yet  every  student  of  American 
Renaissance  should  contrive  to  make,  at  least,  one  pil- 
grimage thither  during  his  lifetime  to  gain,  it  possible, 
a  better  idea  of  the  most  characteristic  development  his 
national  school  of  architecture  has  seen. 

After  Annapolis,  the  honors  of  American  Renais- 
sance are  divided  between  a  score  of  more  or  less  his- 

65 


American   Renaissance 

toric  towns,  among  them  the  Colonial  capital  of  New 
Hampshire  claiming  especial  recognition.  Portsmouth 
also  has  the  atmosphere  which  means  the  elixir  of  life 
to  the  housebuilder  in  quest  of  inspiration.  To  breathe 
this  atmosphere  here,  at  his  ease,  however,  will  cost 
him  $4  per  day  at  the  Rockingham;  but  then,  what 
enthusiast  is  there  who  would  begrudge  $4  for  the  sake 
of  making  the  acquaintance  of  such  a  raving,  tearing 
beauty  as  the  house  built  by  Capt.  McPhLedris  in  1723 
(see  Plate  XXX).  I  could  tell  you  how  the  bricks  to 
build  it  were  all  imported  from  England,  only,  this 
trite  piece  of  information  is  so  applicable  to  Colonial 
houses  generally  as  to  be  of  little  real  interest  to  the 
reader,  who,  I  imagine,  cares  not  at  all  whether  the 
bricks  were  imported  from  Kamtschatka  or  manufac- 
tured in  a  nearby  kiln.  But  when  I  say  that  his  house 
cost  Capt.  McPhjfidris  something  like  the  equivalent 
of  $30,000,  I  receive  instant  attention,  because  a  mod- 
ern admirer  might  think  himself  warranted  in  exploit- 
ing an  adaptation  with  just  about  one-third  that  sum  of 
money.  Of  course,  he  would  fail,  that  is,  to  carry  out 
the  scheme  properly.     The  principal  rooms  of  the  first 

66 


.  •  ,'1'tATE:  XX!X. 


WWimm.  'iiihiiuJe  liilllillilliiiiiHi.sskHiii' 


■%- 


A  SALEM  GATEWAY.     NICHOLS'  HOUSE. 


HOPPIN  HOUSE  FROM  THE  CLOSE.     RAREVIEW,   LITCHFIELD. 


The   Grand  Epoch 

story  are  paneled  in  wood  from  floor  to  ceiling,  and 
the  panels  are  beveled  flush  panels — the  most  expen- 
sive kind. 

Here  is  a  wonderful  old  house  intensely  affecting 
to  stand  and  contemplate.  It  seems  to  be  sinking  into 
the  earth,  as  many  old  houses  in  England  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  doing,  and  possesses  a  tone  like  a  Stradiva- 
rius  violin,  which  cannot  be  counterfeited.  The  day  in 
the  summer  of  1896,  when  I  spent  a  delightful  hour  in 
its  company,  was  a  sort  of  reception  day,  I  remember. 
There  were  many  summer  visitors  calling,  and  they 
"  de-ared  "  it  and  gushed  over  it  as  society  people  gush 
over  a  Chopin  etude,  because  they  think  it  proper  to 
do  so,  without  appreciating  the  subtle  sentiment  of  the 
thing  at  all.  It  is  not  so  much  an  affair  of  one's  edu- 
cation as  it  is  an  affair  of  the  heart.  Peo{:)le  must  have 
the  right  kind  ot  a  heart  and  the  right  kind  of  a  chari- 
table nature  before  they  may  really  enjoy  either  a 
Chopin  etude  or  the  McPhjedris  house  at  Portsmouth. 
To  quote  the  lines  of  Holofernes  in  "  Love's  Labor's 
Lost":  They 

"Find  not  the  apostrophes,  and  so  miss  the  accent." 

67 


American  Renaissance 

While  Portsmouth  is  on  the  main  line  of  travel 
north  from  Boston,  it  is  still  almost  as  much  neglected 
as  Annapolis,  and  it  is  a  great  pity  that  many  of  its 
once  splendid  mansions  are  falling  into  decay.  The 
Governor  Langdon  house,  the  Ladd  house  and  others 
should  receive  the  attention  they  bestow  upon  such 
priceless  relics  in  Salem,  where  everything  of  the  kind 
is  jealously  guarded.  But  Salem  is  so  distinctly  illus- 
trative of  early  nineteenth  century  work  that  I  intend 
to  refer  to  it  later,  under  that  head,  likewise  to  Provi- 
dence and  Bristol,  in  Rhode  Island,  and  Middletown, 
in  Connecticut. 

New  York  and  Boston  have  practically  nothing  left 
of  the  grand  epoch.  The  Walton  house  of  Pearl 
Street  and  the  Hancock  house  of  Beacon  Street,  re- 
spectively, with  all  their  less  noted  colleagues,  have 
passed  into  history,  the  Walton  house  (i.e.,  in  its  origi- 
nal splendor)  before  the  advent  of  photography ;  so 
that  we  have  not  even  pictures  of  it  of  any  value. 
The  Jumel  mansion  (a.  d.  1 758)  perched  upon  a  dizzy 
height  overlooking  the  Harlem,  is  a  sole  survivor  intact 
whose  permanency  is  threatened  at  the  time  I  write. 

68 


PLATE  X)CC. 


platp:  XXXI. 


:'      U 

—  ^y 

-  y. 


The   Grand  Epoch 

But  Philadelphia,  with  Fairniount  Park  and  Cier- 
mantown  contiguous,  is  still,  historically,  very  interest- 
ing, the  most  celebrated  relics  of  this  vicinity  being 
the  Chew  house  at  Germantown,  and  the  Arnold- 
Shippen  house  (called  "  The  Dairy ")  in  Fairniount 
Park.  Presentments  of  the  famous  Chew  house  (still 
standing)  will  be  found,  however,  in  every  illustrated 
history  of  the  Revolution,  including  the  popular  juven- 
ile, "  Boys  of  '76  " ;  but  pictures  of  Wyck,  at  German- 
town  (see  Plae  XXXIII)  equally  historic,  are  rare,  as 
are  also  the  pictures  of  some  other  places  I  shall  men- 
tion, and  which  I  have  taken  much  pains  to  obtain  tor 
this  review. 

Wyck  is  the  oldest  house  in  Germantown,  at  least, 
part  of  it  is  said  to  be,  and  its  extreme  length,  together 
with  the  great  passage  there  is  through  it  to  an  inner 
court  or  garden,  make  it  the  most  curious  as  well. 
Stenton-in-the-Fields  has  many  legends  and  things  to 
commend  it  to  the  anti(juarian,  but  it  is  not  pretty  at 
all,  and  does  not  appeal  to  the  architect,  who  is  much 
more  attracted  to  the  Wister  house,  numbered  5261 
Main  Street,  and  to  the  Morris  house  (both  appearing 

69 


Americcni   Renaissance 


on  Plate  XXXII),  standing  a  little  farther  along  upon 
the  old  turnpike,  both  of  which,  like  the  Strauss  waltz 
I  mentioned  in  a  preceding  chapter,  are  awfully  nice. 
Germantown  itself  is  much  overrated  and  disappoint- 
ing. It  is  not  a  picturesque  town  like  Annapolis  or 
Portsmouth  or  Salem,  and  lacks  character  generally. 

Journeying  into  Philadelphia  we  shall  find  hidden 
away  in  the  midst  of  a  cheap,  bourgeois  neighborhood 
in  South  Eighth  Street  another  Morris  house  (Plate 
XXXVI)  belonging  to  the  grand  epoch.  This  stun- 
ning relic  is  rarely  photographed,  and  then  the  profes- 
sional photographer  sets  up  his  camera  directly  in  front 
of  it,  uses  his  wide  angle  lens,  which  is  sure  to  distort, 
and  he  cannot  avoid  cutting  off  part  ot  its  base  line, 
and  foreshortening  the  dormer  windows.  This  Morris 
house  has  outlived  all  the  friends  and  acquaintances  of 
its  youth.  Down  by  the  Delaware  River  there  may 
linger  a  vestige,  here  and  there,  of  the  old-time  gentry ; 
but  most  of  the  architecture  which  may  be  called 
"old,"  in  Philadelphia  proper,  belongs  to  a  later 
generation. 

Again,  let  us  turn  in  the  direction  of  Annapolis,  not 

70 


% 


lillf!11lltJIII!l91 


PI.-VIK  XXXIl. 


MORRIS   HOUSE,  CIERMANIOWN. 


WISTER   HOUSE,   GERMANTOWN. 


The   Grand  Epoch 

because  it  is  an  irresistible  magnet  that  the  student  of 
architecture  feels,  more  or  less,  all  his  lite,  but  because 
he  cannot  afford  to  miss  Alexandria.  And  1  do  not 
mean  Alexandria  itself,  for  it  is  pathetically  decrepit. 
The  Carlyle  house  ■•''  is  a  wreck,  and  the  Fairfax  house 
is  ugly.  But  I  mean  to  say  he  cannot  afford  to  miss 
Mount  Vernon,  which  is  usually  reached  via  Alexan- 
dria. If  time  is  limited  in  Washington,  cut  out  the 
new  Library  of  Congress,  which  is  a  political  job,  one 
degree  more  vulgar  than  a  commercial  one.  Indeed,  if 
worse  comes  to  worse  in  the  matter  of  time,  cut  out 
everything  but  the  Capitol,  only,  be  sure  to  see  Mount 
Vernon!   (Plates  XXVII  and  XXVIII.) 

Familiar  as  everybody  is  with  its  pillared  portico 
hieh  above  the  Potomac,  and  "ood  as  many  of  the 
modern  photographs  are  of  this  effective  view  ot  the 
mansion-house,  he  who  has  never  visited  Mount  \'er- 
non  can  form  no  idea  of  the  enchanting  beauty  ot  that 

*  On  Plate  XXXIII  is  presented  a  modern  adaptation  of 
the  Carlyle  house  at  Alexandria,  which  may  convey  to  the 
reader  some  faint  suggestion  of  the  pleasantness  of  the  original 
in  the  hey-day  of  its  prosperity. 

71 


American   Renaissance 

Colonial  estate.  The  ride  on  the  electric  road  from 
Alexandria  is  through  a  country  scrubby  enough  and 
rough  enough  to  send  dismay  to  the  most  persevering 
tourist;  but  do  not  dismay,  for  at  the  end  a  transforma- 
tion scene  awaits  you  which  you  will  never  forget,  and 
if  you  be  an  architect,  will  supply  inspiration  worth 
many  times  your  travelling  expenses. 

Walking  out  upon  the  magnificent  stretch  of  green- 
sward that  overlooks  the  river,  one  cannot  but  agree 
with  Washington  in  preferring  Mount  \>rnon  to  every 
other  country  seat  of  America.  I  can  think  of  none 
that  equals  it  naturally,  while  architecturally,  it  is  thor- 
oughlv  admirable  from  stylobate  to  cupola. 

Within,  the  wainscots,  cornices  and  chimney-pieces 
are  models  of  excellence ;  and  if,  perhaps,  we  could 
nowadays  achieve  better  success  in  ventilating  bed- 
rooms than  was  achieved  by  Washington  with  his,  we 
must  own,  we  a^  still  largely  the  debtor  jiarty  by  the 
amount  of  education  we  imbibe  relating  to  what  Eliza 
Southgate  calls — in  her  edifying  book  of  letters  of  a 
girl  written  eighty  years  ago,  bound  between  samplers, 
concerning   Sunswick,   the  Delafield    house   on    Long 

72 


PLATE  XXXIll. 


WVCK,  GEKMAXTOWN. 


TERRACE  AND  GARDEN  ERONT  OF  A  HOUSE  AT  WYOMING,  N.  J.      1S99. 
Modern  Development  of  the  Carlyle  House,  Alexandria,  Va. 


I 


The   Grcmd  Epoch 

Island — "  Ease,  elegance  and  hospitality,"  and  which 
we  carry  away  with  us. 

As  one  looks  back  from  the  west  gate  toward  the 
manse  which  he  sees  at  the  end  ot  a  vista  of  verdure, 
another  conception  of  the  first  American  comes  to  him 
which  no  biographer  out  of  all  he  has  had  seems  to 
have  thought  worth  while  delineating.  Washington 
has  always  been  our  greatest  military  commantler.  We 
were  convinced  of  that  long  before  our  visit  to  Mount 
Vernon,  but  he  has  not  always  been  our  greatest  con- . 
noisseur  of  American  Renaissance. 

Colonial  estates  as  carefully  restored  and  preserved 
as  Mount  Vernon  are  extremely  scarce,  especially 
throughout  the  South.  I  number  among  my  acquaint- 
ances some  enthusiasts  who  spent  several  weeks  in 
Gloucester  County,  V^irginia,  a  year  or  so  ago,  and 
who  did  me  the  honor  of  writing  glowing  accounts  ot 
some  ancestral  halls  they  had  discovered  there.  They 
were  not  architects,  and  could  hardly  have  judged  of 
the  architectonic  merit  of  their  find;  but  as  the  names 
of  the  plantations  were  euphonious — names  like  "  El- 
mington,"  '^  Whitemarsh,"    "  Todsbury,"   and   "  Rose- 

73 


American   Refiaissance 

well,"  I  was  anxious  to  see  the  pictures  they  brought 
home,  one  of  which,  with  their  permission,  appears  on 
Plate  XXXVII.  Visions  of  more  estates  like  Jeffer- 
son's Monticello,  Madison's  Montpelier,  Sabine  Hall, 
Westover  and  Shirley  easily  flitted  across  my  brain; 
but  alas  I  I  was  doomed  to  disappointment  I  The 
photographs  revealed  many  typical  Virginia  planta- 
tions entailed  and  beautiful,  but  not  at  all  remarkable 
architecturally.  In  my  anxiety  to  know  the  truth 
about  \^irginia  I  repeated  the  question,  "  Were  there 
no  houses  as  nice  as  Shirley  ? —nothing  as  nice  as 
Shirley"?"  (see  Plate  \),  when,  after  considerable  ex- 
planation and  some  excuses,  there  was  left  but  frankly 
to  own  that  the  great  plantations  I  had  enumerated 
were  the  homes  of  the  wealthier  planters  and  proprietors 
under  the  royal  patents,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there 
was  nothing  in  Gloucester  as  representative  of  the 
grand  epoch  as  was  Shirley-on-the-James. 

Throughout  New  England  and  the  middle  States 
isolated  examples  of  exceptionally  good  Colonial  archi- 
tecture are  still  numerous,  and  some  of  them  in  good 
repair.      There  will   be  just  one,  perhaps,   to   a  town 

74 


PI 


ATE  XXXIV. 


JOHN  COTTON  SMITH    HOUSE,   SHARON,  CONN. 


THE  DEM  MING  HOUSE,   LITCHFIELD,  CONN. 

(The  front  has  not  been  altered.) 


I'LAIK  XXXV. 


FORD  MANSION,   MORRISTOWN,   N.  J.     18TH  CENTURY. 
Headquarters  of  His  Excellency  General  Washington  during  the  Winter  of  1779-S0. 


DOORWAY  WITH   HOOD,   LYNN-REGIS.     1S97. 


The   Grand  Epoch 

which  played  its  part  in  the  American  Revohition,  and 
where  any  one  might  suppose  tliere  would  he  more 
that  had  survived  the  menaces  of  commerciahsm. 
This  is  the  case  at  Morristown,  New  Jersey,  where  the 
Ford  mansion  (see  Plate  XXX\^)  is  a  lone  patriarch 
whose  simple  lines  make  a  neighboring  and  hideous 
Franco-American  root  constructed  during  our  Reign 
of  Terror — the  seventies — all  the  more  ugly  and  exas- 
perating. Then  there  are  some  towns  like  Litchfield, 
Connecticut,  whose  claims  tor  Colonial  architecture  are 
hardly  warranted.  There  are  but  two  good  exem[)lars 
in  Litchfield  to  see,  and  but  two  indifierent  hotels  to 
stop  at.  As  a  friend  of  mine  expresses  it  :  "  When  I 
dine  at  one  I  always  wish  I  had  dined  at  the  other." 
The  two  good  examples  are,  namely,  Protessor  Hop- 
pin's  house  (Plate  XXIX)  and  the  Demming  house 
(Plate  XXXIV),  standing  nearly  opposite  on  North 
Street.  They  have  both  been  altered  and  enlarged, 
and  are  theretore  so  much  injured.  The  tronts  ot  each 
are  happily  intact.  Modern  amplification  otten  makes 
me  wish  I  could  borrow  the  efficacious  sign  that  used 
to  hang  upon  the  wall  ot  an  old  saw  mill,  across  which 

75 


A?nerican   ReJiais sauce 

was  rudely  inscribed  the  impressive  legend :  "  Don't 
monkey  with  the  buzz-saw  I "  Only,  for  my  purposes, 
I  should  omit  "  the  buzz-saw,"  substituting  therefor 
"this  house."  I  sincerely  believe  a  great  deal  of  good 
could  yet  be  accomplished  in  that  way,  or,  rather, 
much  evil  averted. 

A  number  of  celebrated  relics  properly  belonging  to 
this  chapter,  which  is  already  overstepping  the  limits 
assigned  to  it,  I  have  tailed  to  mention.  The  forego- 
ing form  but  a  very  imperfect  list  of  living  representa- 
tives of  the  grand  epoch.  Still,  taken  each  as  a  type, 
they  fairly  cover  the  historic  period  cited.  My  selec- 
tions present  houses  variously  constructed  of  stone,  of 
wood,  of  brick,  and  of  stucco.  They  are  all  original 
designs,  original  as  the  times  and  the  conditions  which 
prevailed  in  the  colonies  suggested  or  permitted — origi- 
nal as  the  literary  styles  of  authors  are  dissimilar  and 
original,  for  every  art  has  its  grammar,  its  glossary, 
and  whatever  transcends  is  not  art,  but  aberration.  It 
ought  to  be  entirely  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  this  ; 
but  I  have  lately  been  confronted  with  a  startling  mis- 
apprehension upon  this  point  even  among  architects. 

76 


rL,<\:r£;:?i:pf^vi. 


MUKKlb   I1uU>L:,   rillLADELrillA. 


PLATK  XXXVII. 


WINTER  VIEW   OF  EASTOVER. 


A    GHOSr    OF    THE     GRAND     EPOCH,    ROSEWELL, 
GLOUCESTER  COUNTV,  VA. 


The   Grand  Epoch 

Of  course,  these  Colonial  houses  are  Renaissance,  be- 
cause Renaissance,  since  Medi:eval  times,  has  been  the 
connecting  link  history  has  found  convenient  to  unite 
the  present  with  the  past.  Yet  there  is  not  a  building 
in  either  England  or  France  or  Italy  like  any  ot  them. 
They  are  intensely  American  in  every  line,  and  express 
as  much  American  history  as  George  Bancroft  was  able 
to  express  in  his  great  literary  work.  Architecture  is 
not  architecture  which  does  not  express  history.  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral  in  London  is  strictly  Renaissance,  yet 
who  shall  say  it  is  not  original,  that  it  is  not  English 
Renaissance,  and  architecture  above  everything  'I 

The  Renaissance  ot  America  has  as  much  it  not 
more  local  color  than  that  of  Great  Britain.  And  I  do 
not  believe  there  is  an  architectural  scholar  in  the 
country  who  would  have  the  hardihood  to  declare  the 
vast  treasure  house  ot  English  Renaissance  to  be  a 
weak  imitation  ot  an  older  school. 

No,  I  cannot  clearly  make  out  what  the  promoters 
of  the  newly  invented  modes  of  building  expect  to 
teach  us.  There  are  two  lines  of  poetry  wholly  irrele- 
vant  to  architecture,  but  so  irresistibly  significant   of 

77 


A??ierica?i   Keiiais sauce 

the  propositions  of  "  New  Art "  in  all  its  guises,  that  I 
may  not  do  better  than  append  them  here,  to  wit: 

"  He  might  be  taught  by  love  *  and  her  together — 
I  really  don't  know  what,  nor  Julia  either." 

Don  Juan,   Canto  /,  LXXXL 

*  It  was  some  new  kind  of  love  Julia  hoped  to  invent. 


78 


;BJ':a^J'E,  XXXVIII. 


...£:jBiKKrwFfit 


CHAPTER   \T 

EARLY    NINETEENTH    CENTURY    WORK 

To  the  brief  but  brilliant  interregnum  lasting  from  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  until  the  year  1825 
we  are  indebted  for  some  excellent  domestic  architec- 
ture. The  end  ot  the  ancient  regime  in  America,  at 
least  up  to  the  war  with  Great  Britain  in  1812,  was 
marked  by  a  healthy  and  material  progress  which  seems 
to  have  encouraged  domestic  architecture  before  every- 
thing. It  presents  no  phases  in  common  with  that 
ancient  regime  in  France  from  which  we  borrow  the 
title.  With  us  it  was  not  a  case  ot  Du  Barry  and 
revolution ;  for  the  last  remnant  of  America's  aristo- 
cracy passed  away  amid  the  pleasantest  of  surroundings, 
the  only  regret  being  that  our  gentry  failed  to  bequeath 
to  their  children  those  rare  qualities  of  eminent  nobility 
which  they  themselves  enjoyed  to  such  perfection,  and 
which  are  so  charmingly  indicated  by  the  houses  they 

79 


American   Renaissance 

erected — the  houses  they  could  not  make  out  to  take 
with  them,  to  which  it  is  still  our  privilege  to  pay 
visits  and  respects. 

Looking  backward,  let  us  pay  an  imaginary  visit  to 
Bristol,  R.  I.,  in  1810 — Bristol  at  the  height  of  its 
Renaissance.  Perhaps  your  engagement  is  an  invita- 
tion to  supper  or  high  tea  at  George  De  Wolf's,  on 
Hope  Street.  (See  Plate  XXXVIII).  They  enter- 
tain elegantly,  and  this  evening  the  entire  grounds 
comprised  within  the  close  are  illuminated  by  lanterns. 
One  lingers  in  an  enchanted  garden,  intensely  absorbed 
conversing  with  the  architect  of  it  all — Russell  War- 
ren ;  the  scene  delightfully  recalling  a  visit  to  Versailles, 
and  the  work  of  Louis  XIV^'s  famous  gardener  architect, 
Le  Notre.  It  is  thus  you  nearly  fail  to  heed  the  inter- 
ruption caused  by  the  servant  who  approaches  along 
the  box-bordered  walk  to  say  that  supper  is  served  in 
the  large  dining-hall.  I  only  wish  I  had  the  space  to 
continue  this  make-believe  reminiscence  ;  but  the  econ- 
omy of  the  age  in  which  I  live  forbids. 

I  once  wrote  for  the  House  Beautiful^  also  for  the 
Architectural  Review,   papers  wholly  devoted   to    the 

80 


PLATi:   XXXIX. 


Early   Nineteenth   Century   Work 

Renaissance  architecture  of  Bristol,  and  anyone  who 
should  be  particularly  Interested  in  this  local  develop- 
ment of  his  national  school  I  would  respectfully  reter 
to  the  indexes  of  those  publications.  There  are  no 
Colonial  houses  exactly  like  those  of  Bristol.  It  has  a 
unique  development  of  its  own.  It  the  De  Wolf-Colt 
mansion-house  Is  the  most  elaborate  of  its  contempor- 
aries it  is  not  the  more  remarkable.  The  house  once 
belonging  to  Captain  Churchill,  sometime  master  of 
our  queen  of  privateers,  the  "  Yankee,"  erected  in 
1807,  is  a  most  fascinating  exemplar  of  its  genus 
(Plate  XL).  Nearly  all  the  Bristol  houses  have  para- 
pet rails,  the  detail  of  which  is  ex(^uisite.  The  rails  of 
the  Churchill  house  are  particularly  fine,  while  grace- 
fully poised  upon  a  ball  at  each  corner  is  a  carved 
American  eagle,  perhaps  Intended  to  be  emblematic  of 
the  victories  gained  over  the  British  by  their  intrepid 
master.  Another  uncommon  development  greets  us 
in  the  Norris  house  (Plate  XL).  It  has  two  parapet 
rails,  to  accomplish  which  distinction  the  third  story  is 
narrowed  up,  I  should  judge  about  two  feet  all  around 
the  building.     The    De  Wolf-MIddleton  house,    situ- 

81 


American   Renaissance 

ated  on  a  peninsula  forming  Bristol  harbor,  called 
"•  PapasqUcE,"  erected  in  1808,  is  still  another  splendid 
home  with  flanking  wings  and  intermediate  passages,  in 
which  respect  savoring  of  adorable  Annapolis.  (Plate 
XLII).  The  view  shown  is  really  the  rear-view  though 
it  be  the  carriage  approach. 

Then  follow  so  many  beautiful  things  in  Bristol  to 
describe  that  I  quite  despair  of  making  selections. 
There  are  doorways — -bewitching  doorways  galore,  one 
or  two  I  have  already  used  to  illustrate  American 
Renaissance,  and  I  hope  to  find  room  for  others  with- 
out prejudice  to  other  towns. 

Under  the  title  "  A  Salem  Enchantment,"  in 
the  House  Beautiful  tor  November,  1902,  may  be 
found  somewhat  more  ot  an  account  ot  an  interesting 
town  filled  with  early  nineteenth  century  work  than  is 
possible  here.  What  Annapolis  is  to  the  grand  epoch 
Salem  is  to  the  first  quarter  ot  the  nineteenth  century. 
Federal  Street,  Essex  Street,  Broad  and  Chestnut  sug- 
gest a  [xuiorama  ot  editying  domestic  architecture. 
But  ot  all  the  grateful  impressions  that  stamp  them- 
selves indelibly  upon   the  mind,  one  in  particular  has 

S2 


•PLATE  XL. 


HOUSE  WITH  THE  EAGLES,  BRISTOL,   R.   I. 


THE  NORRIS   HOUSE.   BRISTOL,   R.    I. 


ri.\'!i:  XLi.  3 


CHESTNUT  STREET,   SALEM. 


Early  NbietecJith   Century    Work 

microscopic  definition.  It  is  the  house  on  Essex  Street 
once  belonging  to  Captain  Joseph  White,  a  retired 
sea  captain.  (Plate  XLIII).  A  sensational  interest 
may  attach  because  the  captain  was  murdered  tor  his 
money  in  it  some  seventy  years  ago ;  but  outside  of 
this  interest  the  architectural  student  will  find  in  this 
building  as  satisfactory  an  example  ot  its  times  as 
exists  anywhere.  Then,  its  splendid  state  of  preserva- 
tion will  also  delight  the  heart  of  a  connoisseur,  for  I 
cannot  conceive  ot  its  being  at  any  time  in  its  history 
more  beautiful  than  it  appears  to-day.  Photographs  of 
it  are  extremely  rare.  The  Salem  guide-books  and  local 
histories  in  referring  to  the  admirable  domestic  archi- 
tecture of  Salem — which,  by  the  way,  they  do  not 
half  appreciate — curiously  omit  even  mentioning  the 
Captain  White  house.  One  may  learn  all  he  wishes 
concerning  the  Witches  and  Hawthorne;  but  facts 
about  the  pare  aux  cerfs  in  the  reign  of  Louis  X\"  are 
more  easily  obtainable  than  facts  concerning  this  his- 
toric dwelling  in  Salem. 

Providence,    R.   I.,   is  also   extremelv  rich    in    early 
nineteenth    century  material;  but   Hartford  and  New 

S3 


American   Renaissance 

Haven  in  Connecticut,  where  any  one  might  wander 
expecting  to  find  something  worth  one's  while,  have 
been  done  over  and  badly  done  at  that.  Instead  of 
bothering  with  these  two  places,  go  to  Middletown.  I 
have  already  drawn  upon  Middletown  to  illustrate  this 
review,  though  much  remains  to  which  I  shall  hardly 
do  justice. 

The  Watkinson  house  on  Main  Street,  built  about 
1810  (see  Plates  XLIV,  XLV  and  LXXXVII), 
illustrates  exceptionally  good  early  nineteenth  century 
work,  also  its  mate,  the  General  Mansfield  house, 
nearly  across  the  way. 

The  porch  of  the  Watkinson  house  is  beautifully 
proportioned,  exquisite  in  detail,  with  a  curvilinear  ceil- 
ing in  plaster.  The  columns  rest  upon  brownstone 
bases,  and  these  in  turn  upon  a  brownstone  platform, 
from  the  famous  Portland  quarries  located  upon  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Connecticut  river,  and  which  sup- 
plied New  York  City  for  so  many  years  with  its  prin- 
cipal building  material.  The  Watkinson  house  is  home- 
feeling  personified ;  but  this  is  not  all.  You  walk 
from  the   iron  gateway  through    another    gateway — a 


PLATE 'X LI  I. 


■VEST  APPROACH  AND  ENTRANCE  DE  WOLF-MIDDLETOWN  HOUSE,  BRISTOL,  R.  L 

BUILT  IN  1808. 


THE  BACK  BUILDINGS  OF  PHILADELPHIA. 


,  ,, PLATE,  XlyUI. 


PIRATE;  Xi.IV. 


Early   Nineteenth   Century   Work 

wooden  one  not  visible  in  the  picture,  and  then  again 
through  still  another  gate,  when,  all  at  once,  the  vision 
of  an  old-time  Renaissance  garden  extending  far  down 
toward  the  river  surprises  and  delights  the  eye.  The 
garden  is  furnished  with  all  the  traditional  parapherna- 
lia appropriate  to  it ;  and  under  curious  arbors,  by  trel- 
lises into  miniature  boscages,  one  wanders  enchanted. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  efflorescence  of  commercial- 
ism, and  I  tried  to  find  for  a  foregoing  chapter  an  illus- 
tration ot  heaping  meretricious  ornament  upon  itself 
which  I  needed  at  that  time;  but  now  I  have  the 
pleasure  to  show  you  the  true  efflorescence  in  connec- 
tion with  architecture,  the  efflorescence  with  which  the 
Greatest  of  all  architects  has  most  to  do  in  bringing  to 
perfection. 

I  do  not  think  I  may  conclude  an  article  upon  early 
nineteenth  century  architecture  in  America  without  a 
paragraph  in  reference  to  that  which  exists,  and  is 
likely  to  remain  for  some  time,  in  the  traditionally 
blue-blooded  section  of  Philadelphia  bounded  by  Chest- 
nut and  Pine  Streets  east  of  the  Schuylkill  river.  (See 
Plates  XX,  XXXIX  and  LXXXVII.)  And  all  diings 


American   Renaissance 

considered  I  do  not  know  that  we  have  improved  very- 
much,  it  any,  upon  those  old  Philadelphia  city  house 
plans  in  any  ot  the  newer  designs  exploited  in  such 
variety  both  in  New  York  and  elsewhere.  Without 
the  private  street  at  the  rear  of  the  lot  we  cannot  hope 
to  do  anything  very  satisfactory,  and  in  those  private 
streets — the  entrance  for  the  tradespeople  to  the  houses 
— Philadelphia  has  a  tremendous  advantage  at  the  out- 
set. This  amplification  of  the  backyard — the  dignity 
afforded  it  by  an  independent  gateway  upon  a  street  of 
its  own,  the  pair  of  doors  with  a  transom  opening  into 
it  from  the  staircase  hall  recessed  by  the  rounded  cor- 
ner of  the  back  building,  and  the  disposition  ot  the 
back  building  itself,  all  present  dazzling  opportunities 
to  the  architect  not  only  for  effects  but  for  comfort  and 
convenience.  The  mezzanine  dining-room  with  win- 
dows upon  two  sides  has  unlimited  possibilities  which 
they  seeni  never  to  have  fully  grasped  or  appreciated 
in  Philadelphia.  I  only  wish  I  had  the  restoration  of 
one  of  those  old  Philadelphia  houses  with  carte  blanche 
to  do  with  it  as  I  liked.  Confining  the  entire  mechan- 
ism of  the  menage   to  the  back-building,  the   heat  of 

86 


PLATE  XLV 


BENEFIT  STREET,  PROVIDENCE. 


Ear/y   N'nieteenth   Century   Work 

the  kitchen,  the  odors  of  the  cuHnary  operations,  and 
the  pkimbing  is  a  splendid  economic  scheme.  I  should 
think  that  the  system  of  plumbing  of  the  old  houses 
would  need  to  be  renewed  by  this  time,  which  I  have 
no  doubt  is  beinfj  attended  to,  as  I  believe,  accordiiu^ 
to  the  latest  social  canons,  one  may  not  better  establish 
himself  in  Philadelphia  than  by  reclaiming  one  of  these 
ancient  domiciles  in  what  has,  perhaps,  become  a  some- 
what problematical  neighborhood. 

Certainly,  it  must  be  lots  of  fun  to  rehabilitate  the 
paneled  shutters,  to  tie  them  with  ribbons  run  through 
the  rings,  to  restore  the  marble  steps  to  immaculate 
whiteness  once  more,  to  make  the  smiling  fan-top  doors 
smart  again  with  new  paint,  to  brighten  the  windows 
with  curtains  that  may  be  often  re-laundered,  and  lastly, 
to  go  to  Wanamaker's  for  a  new  busybody,* 

Then  comes   the   happy  day  when  we   may  set  up 

*  A  kind  of  looking-glass  peculiar  to  Philadelphia  and  usu- 
ally attached  to  a  second-story  window,  whereby  the  occupants 
of  a  house  may  "  keep  tab  "  of  not  only  whatever  is  occur- 
ring up  and  down  street,  but  of  whoever  is  bold  enough,  under 
the  circumstances,  to  ring  the  front  door  bell. 

87 


Amer!ca?i   Renaissance 

our  household  p;ods  in  a  way  intinitely  to  our  hking, 
and  recstabhsh  in  business  that  ever  wiiHng,  all  Tound 
faithful  servant — the  back-building,  which  Philadel- 
phians  assure  us  has  cured  the  case  of  many  a  malade 
inmginaire,  with  almost  human  instinct,  by  unexpectedly 
taking  fire.      (See  Plate  XLII.) 


PLATE  vXLVJ. 


MODERN    CIIIMNEV-PIECE. 

Joy  Wheeler  Dow,  Architect. 


CHAPTER   VII 


THE    TRANSITIONAL    PERIOD 


The  trick  enigmatical  nature  sometimes  plays  the 
gentlest  parents  by  an  offspring  who,  notwithstanding 
their  constant  solicitude — the  constant  bending  of  the 
twig — turns  out  to  be  a  disappointment,  not  to  say  a 
positively  black  sheep,  has  its  analogy  in  art.  And  ot 
such  curious  analogy  no  more  picturesque  example 
exists  than  that  supplied  by  what  has  come  to  be 
known  as  our  ''  Transitional  period " — a  hopelessly 
ordinary  offspring  of  a  civilization  highly  cultivated 
and  refined. 

To  see  the  Transitional  period  in  its  popular  aspect, 
which  is  its  worst  aspect,  no  better  spectacles  may  be 
borrowed  than  those  once  worn  by  Charles  Dickens, 
the  novelist,  to  write  his  '*  American  Notes  ''  and 
"Marti-n  Chuzzlewit."  Only,  it  will  nt)t  do  to  pass 
final  judgment  from  a  scathing  arraignment  of  crimes 
to  the  e^itent  of  burlesquing  the  subject,  as  happens  at 

89 


American  Renaissance 

times  in  Dickens'  books.  There  is  the  documentary 
evidence  to  be  sifted  and  examined  which,  I  am  very 
sure,  will  lessen  and  correct  the  scandal  materially.  And 
it  1  have  hitherto  neglected  to  avail  myself  of  such 
evidence,  permitting  the  scandal  of  the  Transitional 
period  to  appear  as  common  gossip  in  these  articles,  it 
was  for  dramatic  efTect  and  for  contrast.  In  the  present 
article  I  propose  to  make  reparation,  and  direct  the 
magnifying  power  mainly  upon  that  which  is  good. 

It  was  somewhat  unfair  of  Dickens  to  expect  that 
we  should  have  achieved  architectural  jirandeur  in  the 
brief  time  at  our  disposal;  but  I  regret  that  his  uncom- 
plimentary description  of  the  City  of  Washington  in 
the  forties  is  yet  graphic  in  a  degree  of  the  present 
capital,  though  vast  appropriations  by  Congress  have 
been  frequently  lavished  upon  it,  and  misspent.  We 
know  that  Dickens  was  not  always  prejudiced,  by  the 
encomiums  he  bestowed  upon  the  scenery  of  New 
England,  for  instance,  and  the  pretty  girls  he  chanced 
to  meet  during  his  visit,  who  it  seems  contrived  to  be 
born  in  America  despite  the  banal  times  and  hideous 
fashions  which,  I  am  glad,  could   not  wholly   disguise 

90 


The    TrciJisitional  Period 

them.  However,  as  complete  sets  of  the  works  of 
Charles  Dickens  are  to  be  found  upon  the  shelves  of 
every  public  library,  and  secondhand  copies  of  "  Ameri- 
can Notes  "  and  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit ''  may  be  picked 
up  for  a  few  pennies  at  the  bookstands,  nobody  need 
miss  the  salutary  influence  of  many  of  the  criticisms. 
Not  so  easily  may  the  American  student  provide  himself 
with  a  copy  of  the  diary  of  Philip  Hone,  though  it  be 
a  much  more  instructive  and  faithful  commentary  upon 
the  Transitional  period  than  anything  Dickens  ever 
wrote.  For  I  think  the  two  volumes  sell  for  $7  net. 
There  are  no  pirated  copies  to  be  had,  of  course,  no 
cheap  editions,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  the  more  reli- 
able sources  of  information  it  is  obligatory  upon  us  to 
look  up  would  we  follow  cause  and  effect  in  the  histor^' 
of  American  art.  Here  indeed  our  own  copyright  law 
is  a  positive  hindrance  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
Few  architectural  students  can  afford  $7  for  a  purely 
literary  work  devoted  to  the  Transitional  period. 

Mr.  Hone  wrote  his  journal  from  day  to  day  as 
Samuel  Pepys  wrote  his,  without  idea  of  publication, 
and,  consequently,  without  exaggeration,  praise  or  ridi- 

91 


American  Renaissance 

cule  for  effect.  He  wrote  things  down  as  he  saw  them. 
He  was  not  writnig  to  correct  popular  abuses.  He 
was,  apparently,  governed  in  his  avocation  by  no  other 
desire  than  the  simple  one  of  keeping  a  diary.  And  it 
is  this  unaffected  form  of  diary  that  makes  its  contents 
more  and  more  valuable  as  time  goes  on. 

When  Dickens  has  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit "  enter- 
tained in  New  York  society  he  constructs  for  our 
edification  an  amusing  farce  which  we  enjoy  as  a  farce, 
though  the  author  himself  pretends  to  be  in  very 
earnest ;  but  when  Philip  Hone  relates  of  an  assembly 
ball  with  great  difficulty  arranged  owing  to  the  painful 
lack  of  homogeneity  and  even  suitability  of  the  availa- 
ble personnel,  another  and  serious  phase  of  the  case  is 
presented,  because  it  is  sadly  true.  Under  the  ingenu- 
ous pen  of  this  diarist,  we  may  see  James  Gordon  Ben- 
nett the  elder  wrangling  with  the  unliveried  servants 
for  admission  which,  we  are  told,  the  management 
finally  consented  to  extend  upon  the  one  condition 
that  the  account  of  the  ball  which  was  to  appear  in  the 
Herald  the  following  morning  should  at  least  be 
"decent."     I  believe  that  is  the  word  Mr,  Hone  uses, 

92 


PIATE  ^'J.VIl. 


The    Transitional  Period 

At  any  rate,  we  realize  as  never  before  how  disor- 
ganized the  social  tabric  must  have  been  at  the  period, 
and  how  it  had  deteriorated  trom  that  of  the  older 
regimes.  It  is  all  but  ludicrous,  that  entry  in  the  diary 
where  the  connoisseurs  gather  in  Barclay  Street  to  pay 
their  respects  to  such  mediocre  art  as  was  exemplified 
by  the  allegorical  series  of  paintings  called  "The 
Voyage  of  Life."  The  reader  remembers  the  old  en- 
gravings of  them,  I  dare  say,  very  well.  But  we  know 
that  the  connoisseurs  did  do  this  very  silly  thing, 
because  Philip  Hone's  diary  is  indisputable  and  exact 
evidence  uncolored.  It  is  incredible,  nevertheless, 
that  a  political  expediency  should  have  caused  the 
whole  nation  to  forget  so  readily  the  proficiency  in  art 
matters  attained  by  preceding  generations,  and,  presto  I 
resolved  its  most  representative  spirits  into  an  unpromis- 
ing class  of  abecedarians. 

There  is  a  tone  often  noticeable  throughout  the 
memoirs  of  Philip  Hone,  who  sometimes  made  trips 
abroad  in  the  sailing  packets  of  his  day,  thereby  ex- 
tending the  scope  of  his  own  horizon,  as  though  he 
were  a  bit  ashamed  of  the  crude  provincialism  of  his 


American   Renaissance 

compatriots  when  it  was  tiie  custom  to  speak  the  Eng- 
lish language  incorrectly,  and  when  the  three  Rs — 
"Reading,  Riting  and  Rithmetic  "  —  were  all  the 
academic  preparation  for  a  life  of  usefulness  that  was  re- 
quired. Indeed,  if  he  were  quick  at  figures,  could  fol- 
low Webster's  spelling  book,  and  make  neat  flourishes 
with  his  pen,  no  young  man  of  the  Transitional  period 
need  ever  have  despaired  of  positions  and  promotion. 

The  question  often  heard,  now-a-days,  "  What  chance 
has  a  man  for  self-cultivation  in  a  boom  town?"  ap- 
plies very  nearly  to  the  metropolis  of  the  Transitional 
period.^"  What  use  more  profitable  could  one  have 
found  for  his  time  than  speculation  in  real  estate,  if  one 
could  buy  a  house  for  $25,000,  as  did  Philip  Hone, 
and  sell  it  within  a  few  years  for  $60,000  ?  Certainly, 
there  was  Httle  inducement  to  pursue  art  in  such  a 
phenomenally  active  market  for  values.  The  best  that 
could  be  expected  of  the  verv  busy  man  of  the  day 
was  to  send  his  son  betimes  to  college  and  to  Europe, 

*  The  panic  of  1837  broke  the  boom  for  a  while,  but  it 
was  practically  rehabilitated  by  the  inauguration  of  Harrison  in 
1841. 

94 


The    Trans  it  io?iai  Period 

the  liberal  education,  it  is  true,  otten  unfitting  him  again 
tor  business  as  it  was  transacted  in  America.  There  was 
a  manufacturer  ot  Transitional  furniture  who  sent  his 
son  to  Paris  to  learn  cabinet-making  of  those  most 
renowned  of  European  artificers ;  and  I  have  it  from 
the  son  himself  that  he  was,  afterwards,  obliged  to  un- 
learn and  forget  all  his  Parisian  training  in  order  to  meet 
the  home  demand  for  cheap  and  tawdry  stuff.  Fancy ! 
The  art  prophet  which  this  bourgeois  epoch  produced 
corresponded  exactly  to  it — just  such  a  one  as  might 
be  naturally  expected — John  Ruskin,  old  fogy  with 
ideas  of  no  practical  value  to  communicate  to  the 
world,  but,  like  Browning  and  Emerson,  full  of  words, 
rhymes  and  sentences.  Ruskin  conceived  a  violent  pas- 
sion a  la  Plato  for  the  Gothic  mode  of  building.  He 
affected  to  deplore  the  ''  foul  fiood  of  the  Renaissance." 
And  his  great  theory  was  that  as  the  leaves  of  plants 
nearly  always  terminate  in  a  point,  it  was  intended  by 
nature  that  man  should  take  pattern  therefrom  for  his 
architecture.  To  make  a  theory  so  point-device  con- 
sistent Ruskin  went  so  far  as  to  criticise  those  leaves 
of  plants  which  terminate  in  other  ways.    Imagine  some 

95 


Afnerican   Retiaissance 

classic  writer  tracing  the  origin  of  the   Roman  arch  to 
Hly-pads  which  may  have  floated  in  the  Tiber  I 

The  only  really  clever  observation  concerning  archi- 
tecture Ruskin  ever  made  was  the  metaphor  he  applied 
to  the  great  medictval  cathedrals — "frozen  music." 
But  he  was  not  a  purist  ot  Gothic  architecture  in  the 
truer  sense.  Had  he  been  so,  he  would  have  defended 
the  Tudor  castles  ot  England  against  Renaissance  ob- 
trusion; for  the  Tudor  architecture  was  a  true  develop- 
ment of  the  home  idea,  legitimate  and  historical,  while 
that  of  the  Gothic  cathedrals  was  not  intended  to  serve 
for  dwelling-houses  by  any  possible  contingency.  Yet 
Ruskin  persisted  in  the  feasibility  of  an  anomalous 
adaptation,  something,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  nobody 
has  achieved  with  very  great  credit.  For  rectories  and 
parish  houses  the  ecclesiastic  Gothic  may  serve  as  far 
as  sentiment  and  harmony  are  desired;  but  for  practi- 
cal uses  it  is  a  failure  applied  to  dwelling-houses. 
Grace  Church  rectory  is  extremely  disappointing  within 
if  we  consider  all  the  disiderata  of  a  modern  home, 
however  suggestive  of  comfort  it  may  be  to  the  casual 
observer.     (See  Plate  XLVII). 

96 


PLATE  yi.VHI. 


m^i 


o  2; 
> 

-y)   —I 

D    -^ 
O    > 

-  a 


The    Transitioiial  Period 

The  Richniond-Dow  house  at  Warren,  R.  I.,  shown 
in  Plate  L,  is  a  typical  example  of  Ruskin  Gothic  when 
the  poet's  influence  was  at  its  height.  For  the  roman- 
tically inclined  individual  of  the  Transitional  period 
but  one  course  was  open,  namely,  to  build  him- 
self a  Ruskin  Gothic  cottage.  The  stone  cottages  like 
the  Richmond-Dow  cottage  were  the  better  sort,  and  it 
the  narrow  lancet  windows  tended  to  make  them  a  Ht- 
tle  gloomy  they  were  otherwise  not  half  bad ;  but  the 
wooden  cottages  with  the  perpendicular  battens  are 
execrable.  Another  very  deceiit  stone  cottage  in  eccle- 
siastic Gothic  is  shown  in  Plate  LI.  It  has  a  charm- 
ing setting  on  High  Street  at  Middletown,  Ct.,  and 
again  the  interior,  like  Grace  church  rectory,  is  a  disap- 
pointment. The  delightful  window  overlooking  the 
lawn  is  not  nearly  so  nice  from  the  inside.  The  hbre 
ot  quartered  oak  was  generally  too  tough  tor  the  planes 
and  chisels  of  the  Transitional  joiners,  who  always  pre- 
ferred to  work  in  white  pine,  and  leave  to  the  make- 
shift grainer  the  responsibility  of  doing  it  up  to  simu- 
late oak.  We  are,  all  of  us,  familiar  with  that  forlorn 
art  of  graining. 

97 


American   Re?iaissa?ice 

Then,  in  order  not  to  forego  in  the  ecclesiastic 
Gothic  cottages  another  indispensable  makeshift — the 
American  veranda — the  Transitional  architects  dese- 
crated rood-screens  and  chancel  carvings.  Happily, 
now-a-days,  nobody  would  think  ot  copying  Ruskin  in 
a  dwelling-house.  People  may  like  to  read  a  conven- 
tional gitt-book  occasionally,  and  take  up  "  Sesame  and 
Lilies"  from  the  drawing-room  table  when  they  have 
time  to  kill,  and  want  to  get  away  trom  everyday  life 
and  practical  things.  Moreover,  the  most  selfish  and 
unscrupulous  people  in  the  world  are  apt  to  have  a 
vein  of  sentimental  efflorescence  in  their  nature  which 
will  reveal  itself,  when  they  read  Ruskin  or  Browning, 
with  a  zest  that  is  Machiavelian. 

But  the  Transitional  period  as  we  have  come  to 
know  it  best  was  not  a  Gothic  revival,  but  a  poverty- 
stricken  application  of  Renaissance  motive  and  detail 
out  of  the  midst  of  which  I  have  proposed  to  try  to 
find  something  commendable — something  to  praise. 
Well,  I  think  I  shall  have  done  so  when  I  throw  upon 
the  imaginary  screen  I  have  so  often  suspended  before 
my  very  patient  audience,  the  picture   of  the  doorway 

gS 


The    Transitional  Period 

in  East  Fourth  Street,  New  York  City  (Plate  XLVIII). 
And  were  it  a  "truly"  phantasmagoria  I  were  conduct- 
ing, I  know  it  would  be  difficult  for  an  audience  to 
restrain  itselt — not  to  cry  "  Ah  I  "  after  the  manner  of 
the  gallery,  because  I  know  how  this  picture  affects 
me,  and  can  discount  the  reader's  enthusiasm  accord- 
ingly. The  adjoining  windows  are  out  of  proportion 
to  t!ie  doorway,  and  badly  spaced,  but  are  faithful  to 
the  epoch.  One  must  not  expect  too  much  of  a  Trans- 
itional house.  The  part  of  the  window  shown  belong- 
ing to  No.  23  Bond  Street — (see  Plate  XLVIII),  has 
better  proportions,  though  the  doorway  beside  it  is  not 
half  as  beautiful  as  the  one  on  Fourth  Street.  Still,  we 
owe  it  to  an  uncommon  episode  that  this  doorway  has 
been  photographed  at  all,  and  to  which  my  acknowl- 
edgment is  given,  though  I  do  not  altogether  approve 
the  sentiment  of  the  episode. 

No.  23  Bond  Street  was  once  the  property  of  a  great 
beau  of  the  Transitional  period  named  Harry  Ward. 
He  had  money  besides.  Now,  it  is  very  easy  and 
natural  for  a  great  beau  of  any  epoch,  with  money  be- 
sides to  believe  that  because  the  Sabbath  was  made  for 

99 


American   Renaissance 

man,  the  six  other  days  were  made  for  him,  also. 
Alas  I  no  mistake  could  be  more  unfortunate,  and  of 
this  the  doorway  has  long  stood  as  mute  evidence.  In 
coming  into  possession  of  No.  23  Bond  Street,  in  his 
time  a  fishionable  neighborhood,  Harry  Ward  deco- 
rated and  refurnished  the  house  in  a  way  which  may 
be  said  to  have  been  the  last  word  upon  the  subject  of 
household  art  of  the  period ;  and,  to  recur  to  a  Transi- 
tional colloquialism,  "  he  had  his  girl  picked  out."  But 
there  were  inimical  circumstances  which  precluded  the 
nuptial  celebration,  so  they  could  not  live  in  the  house. 
Then  Mr.  Ward  died,  and,  I  believe,  bequeathed  No. 
23  Bond  Street,  in  fee-simple,  to  his  sweetheart.  This 
sweetheart,  like  Edith  Bartlett  in  "  Looking  Backward," 
rode  on  the  top  of  the  coach,  and  consequently  she 
also  coveted  the  six  days  that  were  not  made  for  man, 
very  much.  The  dispensation  seemed  unnecessarily 
cruel.  We  may  not  judge  of  the  motives  that  induced 
her  to  rebel,  and  to  keep  the  house  as  long  as  she 
lived  a  sacred  memorial  to  Mr.  Ward  and  to  have 
nothing  moved  or  changed  from  the  way  he  had  or- 
dered it  during  his  lifetime  ;  but  we  know  that  without 


PLATE  XLIX. 


SUN-DIAL,  GRACE  CHURCH   RECTORY,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


The    Trcuisitiojial  Period 

ci  siiperabunchmce  ot  wealth,  she  couUl  not  have  grati- 
fied a  sentiment  wherein  a  sinister  and  selfish  sid^  ?)t^j 
weighs  its  virtue.  You  see,  how  very  tew  ot,'trs  jnay, 
be  trusted  with  money  I  For  it  would  have  b'^eh  i'SO' 
much  finer  monument  to  Mr.  Ward  had  this  house 
been  bestowed  by  his  legatee  upon  some  poorer  though 
deserving  couple  whom  the  Lord  had  destined  to  be 
ot  use  to  Him  : — it  would  have  been  infinitely  better 
dedicated  as  a  museum  ot  the  Transitional  period  tor 
its  didactic  benefit  to  art  students;  but  I  tear  I  am  the 
only  human  being,  excepting  the  care-takers  perhaps, 
who  has  derived  any  tangible  satistaction  trom  No.  23 
Bond  street  since  the  sad  denouement  which  closed 
it  so  tightly  to  the  busy  stream  ot  lite  constantly 
passing.'^'" 

*  Within  the  last  year  death  has  removed  the  faithful 
mourner,  and  the  house  has  been  turned  into  a  kind  of  sweat 
shop,  consequently  the  photograph  on  Plate  XLVIII  cannot  be 
duplicated.  The  inner  doorway  of  the  yestibule  has  been 
taken  away  bodily,  no  doubt  to  adorn  some  modern  Colonial 
house,  also  the  tapering  posts  of  wrought  iron,  and  the  start- 
ing newel  of  the  staircase.       Mockery  of  an  intense  drama! 


American   Renaissance 

I  suppose  the  finest  specimen  of  Transitional  domes- 
\  :\  '.tjc  ^architecture  extant  in  the  United  States  is  the  Ben- 
nptt  house  on  County  Street  in  New  Bedford  (see 
'  '  Plate  LI,  also  Frontispiece),  erected  about  1840,  for  a 
full  description  of  which  I  would  respectfully  refer  the 
reader  to  the  Architectural  Review  (Boston)  for  July, 
1 90 1 .  There  is  nothing  disappointing  about  this  Transi- 
tional exemplar;  it  was  one  of  those  grateful  notes  of 
hope  at  a  season  of  national  melancholia.  Wonder- 
fully imposing  from  its  great  size,  it  will  grieve  the 
reader  to  learn  that  the  magnificent  pile  is  already 
crumbling  from  lack  of  appreciation,  and  it  will  not  be 
long  before  the  dealer  in  second-hand  building  mate- 
rials carries  it  away,  piece  by  piece,  to  his  yard,  so  little 
do  the  people  of  New  Bedford  care  for  the  most  inter- 
esting building  by  far  that  their  city  possesses  to-day. 
The  Bennett  house  is  the  only  successful  adaptation  of 
the  Greek-temple  motive,  pur  et  simple^  to  domestic 
purposes  that  has  come  to  my  knowledge. 

And  here  I  want  to  say  a  single  word  about  restora- 
tion. If  by  any  chance  you  live  in  a  house  of  the 
Transitional  period  that  illustrates  as  good  architecture 


^''K'ATEjlj.: 


HOUSE  UK   MRS.    RICHMOND-DOW,   WARREN,  R.   I. 


HOUSE  OE     MRS.   RICHMOND-DOW.   WARREN,   R.   I. 
View  from  the    Close. 


I'l.A'n;  I.I. 


HOUSE  ON   HIGH   STREET,  AHDDLETOWN,    CONN. 


THE  BENNETT   HOUSE,  COUNTY  ST.,   NEW  BEDFORD,   MASS. 


The    Trausitiojial  Period 

as  that  ot  the  de  Zeng  house  on  High  Street  in  Middle- 
town  (see  Plate  LI  1 1),  don't  try  to  make  it  Colonial  as 
I  have  seen  a  tendency  among  ill-advised  [)eople  to  do 
ot  late.  Let  me  say  to  you  that  you  have  something 
already  so  much  ahead  ot  average  modern  Colonial — 
"  as  she  is  spoke  " — that  it  would  be  a  sin  against  the 
decalogue  ot  art  to  alter  or,  indeed,  do  other  with  it 
than  religiously  to  guard.  Just  keep  your  Transitional 
exemplar  in  the  same  admirable  state  of  repair  in  which 
you  see  the  de  Zeng  house  at  Middletown — and  enjoy 
it.  You  will  thereby  have  tulfilled  your  duty  to  art 
and  to  the  tuture  generations  who  will  rise  up  and  call 
you  blessed. 

The  foregoing  paragraph  applies  equally  to  the 
Roberts  mansion  at  the  northeast  corner  ot  Rittenhouse 
Square  in  Philadelphia  (Plate  LIII).  For  the  sake  ot 
goodness,  don't  try  to  colonialize  it  I  There  are  several 
houses  in  Philadelphia  that  resemble  the  Roberts  house 
— the  Dundas-Lippincott  house  and  the  Willstack 
house  being  tw^o  ot  them,  but  1  think  neither  so  ad- 
mirable. 

I  do  not   know  that    I  should  ever  build  myself  a 

103 


America?!   Renaissance 

house  to  live  in  after  the  manner  ot  the  Transitional 
period  even  after  such  dehghtful  and  exceptional 
models  as  are  supplied  by  the  Bennett,  Roberts  or  de 
Zeng  houses,  but  if  I  already  possessed  one,  I  should 
rest  content  that  its  architecture  could  not  be  improved 
by  any  material  alteration  I  could  suggest. 

In  the  Architectural  Review  for  February,  1902,  the 
reader  may  read  about  the  Transitional  houses  of  lower 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City,  also  ot  that  celebrated 
row  facing  Washington  Square.  The  Waterbury  house 
(see  Plate  LIV)  was  demolished  last  winter,  so  that  its 
entrancing  attic  windows  screened  by  the  crosses  of  St. 
Andrew  will  no  longer  delight  the  visitor  who  returns 
to  the  old  neighborhood. 

The  venerable  Colonnade  on  Lafayette  Place  (Plate 
LV)  probably  makes  its  last  public  appearance  in  this 
review  as  among  the  remains  of  our  Transitional 
period.  Half  of  it  is  already  gone,  while  the  other 
half  is  in  imminent  danger.  This  row  of  dwelling- 
houses  should  not  be  confounded  in  any  way  with  that 
other  row  known  as  London  Terrace  of  Chelsea  village 
(Twenty-third    Street),   because    the    Lafayette    Place 

104 


PIATK  LII 


DOORWAY,   NEW    YORK    CITY. 


I'LATE   MIL 


lllH  DE  ZENC;  HOUSE,   MIDDLETOWN,  CONN. 


THE   ROBERTS   HOUSE,   RITTENHOUSE  SQUARE.   I'HILADELl'HIA. 


The    Transitional  Period 

houses  were  the  "  real  stuff,"  those  of  the  London 
Terrace   are  sham   in  comparison. 

In  the  Colonnade  there  dwelt  at  different  times 
many  noted  individuals.  When  the  first  John  Jacob 
Astor  decided  to  devote  some  of  his  money  to  art,  the 
Astor  library  and  other  gracious  projects,  he  looked 
about  him  for  some  men  of  a  gentler  type  than  those 
with  whom  he  had  rubbed  elbows  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  his  wealth — men  of  some  literary  and  artistic 
achievement  who  would  be  competent  to  direct  the 
proposed  outlay.  Such  spirits  were  rare  in  the  tbrties, 
and  Mr.  Astor  had  difficulty  in  finding  them.  He 
induced  the  poet  Halleck  to  become  his  protege,  and 
Washington  Irving  to  pay  him  extended  visits.  I  am 
not  sure  that  Washington  Irving  was  considered  a 
guest  of  Mr.  Astor  when  he  lived  in  apartments  at  the 
Colonnade,  but  as  he  was  ottien  entrusted  with  various 
commissions  in  matters  ot  literature  and  art.  and  the 
financing  of  same  for  Mr.  Astor,  who  lived  just  over  the 
way,  it  was  nearly  the  same  thing. 

Washington  Irving  spoke  and  wrote  the  English 
language  correctly,  an  uncommon  accomplishment  in 


Americaii   Renaissance 

his  time,  and  for  which  the  American  people  paid  him 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  in  royalties.  He 
was  the  dilettante  par  excellence  of  his  epoch,  who, 
without  having  anything  in  particular  to  say,  said  it 
very  gracefully.  They  did  not  pay  according  to  real 
genius  in  the  Transitional  period,  tor  otherwise,  Poe 
should  have  made  a  fortune  with  two  ot  his  poems  alone 
— namely,  "  The  Raven  "  and  "  The  Bells,"  which  we 
know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  did  not.  However, 
Washington  Irving  had  his  own  mission  to  perform, 
though  it  must  have  been  with  extreme  reluctance  that 
he  quitted  his  snug  bachelor  quarters  at  Wolfert's  Roost 
lor  the  then  palatial  surroundings  ot  the  Colonnade  even 
to  serve  Mr.  Astor.  For  it  you  accept  the  hospitality 
ot  very  rich  people — and  it  you  can  do  anything  worth 
while  you  do  not  want  for  invitations— you  are  gen- 
erally expected  to  return  every  penny's  worth  ot  it  in 
some  way.  Niecks  in  his  ^  Lite  ot  Chopin "  relates 
how  when  the  "  grand  artiste  "  was  asked  to  play  after 
dinner  at  the  hotel  of  an  opulent  host,  he  begged  off, 
pleading  that  he  had  eaten  so  very  little,  which  was 
true  enough,  for  the  malady  from  which  he  suffered  sadly 

1 06 


pi.A  ie;  i^lW 


GOOD  ARCHITECTURE  OF  THE  TRANSITIONAL  PERIOD  IN  LOWER  FIFTH 
AVENUE.      NO.  I   FIFTH  AVENUE. 


WATERBURY  HOME,  FIFTH  AVE.  AND  nth  ST. 


PLATE  ;i.v. 


REMAINING  HALF  OF  THE  COLONNADE. 

Its  Positively   Last  Appearance 


y*ykiii  ^  ,,,*^*-- 


TYPICAL  ARCHITFCIL'RE  OF    1  HE  TRANSITIONAL   PERIOD. 


The    Transitional  Period 

impaired  his  appetite.  But  we  are  not  all  such  con- 
summate masters  ot  our  art  as  was  Chopin  of  his,  and 
do  not  dare  say  such  things,  however  well  merited  they 
may  be.  Washington  Irving  saw  that  he  could  be  of 
service  to  his  country  by  telling  the  "old  gentleman," 
as  he  alludes  to  his  patron  in  the  "  Lite  and  Letters, 
etc,"  how  to  avoid  banality  and  vulgarisms,  and  the 
Astor  library  was  the  largest  and  most  important  public 
charity  that  had  yet  been  attempted. 

In  an  age  when  the  anatomy  ot  charity  is  under  the 
microscope  ot  many  a  millionaire  as  to-day,  it  seems 
discouraging  that  its  secret  is  yet  likely  to  remain  un- 
revealed.  But  let  us  acknowledge  to  ourselves,  are  we 
not  hindered  to  a  very  great  extent  by  that  awkward 
condition  imposed  upon  us  by  every  religion  that  one 
hand  is  not  to  know  what  the  other  is  about"?  And  ot 
course,  you  know,  that  really  takes  all  the  fun  out  of 
charity. 


107 


CHAPTER  VIII 

REIGN    OF    TERROR ITS    NEGATIVE    VALUE 

Alison,  Carlvle  and  all  the  great  historiographers 
who  have  essayed  the  French  Revolution  go  into  long 
preambles  of  the  causes  leading  up  to  the  principal 
drama,  antedating,  by  some  years,  the  assembling  of 
the  States-general.  I  am  very  fond  of  the  opening 
chosen  by  Charles  Dickens  tor  his  "  Tale  of  Two 
Cities,"  namely,  "  It  was  the  best  oi  times,  it  was  the 
worst  of  times."  The  contradictory  statement  is  yet  so 
graphic  as  to  suggest  to  my  mind  all  the  preamble  I 
need  for  a  chapter  upon  the  Reign  of  Terror  in  Ameri- 
can domestic  architecture,  especially  as  I  have  already 
touched  upon  the  remote  causes  in  preceding  chapters. 

If  money  was  ever  to  be  made  without  the  impend- 
ing shadow  ot  nervous  prostration  and  heart  failure — 
I  iiiean  a  decent  sum  ot  money,  a  competency — that 
opportunity  presented   itself  with  dazzling  splendor  in 

]o8 


■PT.Arf.   LVI.\1^ 


And  that  house  with  the  Coopilow's  his'n."— Brkt  Hartk. 


A  FIFTH  AVENUE   MANSION  DURING  THE   REIGN  OF    TERROR. 


Reign  of  Terror — Its  Negative   Value 

the  loyal  States  of  the  Union  during  the  latter  years  of 
the  civil  war  and  those  immediately  succeeding.  All 
kinds  of  property  advanced  in  value,  no  matter  what 
the  kind  was.  Anything — even  cobblestones  would 
have  been  a  good  purchase.  The  great  boom  ot  the 
Transitional  period  was  entirely  eclipsed,  and  people 
who  never  expected  to  be  wealthy,  people  with  the 
humblest  ambitions,  people  whose  callings,  ordinarily, 
would  not  warrant  any  such  hopes,  had  affluence 
literally  forced  upon  them.  I  am  sorry  that  most  of  the 
fortunes  thus  made  had  to  be  lost  again  upon  the  inevi- 
table return  of  normal  conditions — sorry  as  I  am  when 
I  read  a  story  of  Captain  Kidd,  that  the  treasure-box 
has  always  to  sink  out  of  sight  at  the  moment  when 
the  happy  finders  are  rejoicing,  and  the  tuture  seems 
assured. 

I  do  not  know  of  a  political  economist,  not  except- 
ing Henry  George,  who  has  had  "  the  nerve,''  shall  I 
say,  to  attribute  any  of  the  blessings  ot  civilization  to 
war,  pestilence  and  catastrophes.  Yet,  as  nearly  as  a 
spectator  may  judge  by  effects,  these  direful  things  are 
all  conducive  to   the  greatest  amount  of  comfort  and 

109 


American   R eiiaissance 

ease  of  those  who  do  not  dwell  too  close  to  the  points 
of  friction.  The  swifter  is  dissolution,  up  to  a  certain 
ratio,  at  least,  with  the  number  of  births,  the  greater 
the  wealth,  per  capita,  for  the  survivors.  The  survivors 
of  the  civil  war  who  lived  in  the  undevastated  territory 
of  the  Northern  States  were  largely  a  happy  lot.  It 
beg-an  to  look  for  them  as  though  God  had  decided  to 
abolish  the  odds  in  favor  of  the  bank,  so  to  speak,  and 
that  life  would  be,  henceforward,  a  square  game  afford- 
ing everybody  a  chance  to  nibble  at  the  crust  ot  pros- 
perity, not  each  one  subject  to  gain  only  as  another  is 
bereft.  Some  inexorable  condition  appeared  to  have 
given  way,  for,  at  last,  there  was  enough  to  go  'round 
— yes,  more  than  enough ;  and  with  their  surplus  funds 
mounting  higher  and  higher,  these  alarmingly  prosper- 
#ous  people  were  much  addicted  to  the  erection  of 
houses  with  "coopilows." 

In  the  books  of  published  designs  which  circulated 
at  the  period,  dwelling-houses  of  this  class  were  called 
"  Italian  villas,"  although  as  we  have  come  to  know  the 
Italian  villa,  especially  since  the  art  of  photography 
has  brought  it  to  our  intimate  acquaintance,  we  fail  to 


PI.ATF,  LVII. 


Reign  of  Terror — Its  Negative   Value 

see  any  actual  resemblance.  The  house  with  the  cupola 
in  America  was,  in  effect,  a  newly-invented  style  of 
architecture  of  its  era,  no  doubt  suggested  by  the 
sumptuous  villas  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  since  thev 
have  always  suggested  prodigious  opulence,  and  would 
naturally  attract  a  people  who-  had  suddenly  become 
rich.  Besides,  in  no  other  style  of  building  that  I  have 
seen  could  a  dollar  be  made  to  make  more  show  than 
in  the  cupola-house  ot  our  Reign  of  Terror.  The  art 
of  pretentiousness  was  never  better  understood,  and  no 
art  has  responded  more  quickly  to  a  popular  demand. 

The  photograph  ot  a  house,  which  I  have  not  the 
heart  to  publish,  recalls  to  memory  the  story  of  an  old 
gentleman,  now  some  years  deceased,  who  at  the  height 
of  his  career  started  out  to  build  the  most  fanciful 
house  that  anybody  could  possibly  imagine,  "  Fanci- 
ful "  was  the  word  he  used,  and  appears  to  have  been 
the  favorite  adjective  ot  Jacobinical  builders.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  he  succeeded  marvelously  well,  as  I 
cannot  picture  to  myself  a  greater  number  of  odd  con- 
ceits in  a  limited  area  than  he  achieved,  nor  do  I  see 
how  the  scroll-saw  could  be  made  to  perform  greater 


A?nerican   Renaissance 

wonders ;  but  I  knew  not  the  resources  of  those  clever 
artificers.  A  still  more  fanciful  house,  he  told  mc, 
which  he  afterwards  discovered,  caused  the  ambitious 
builder  of  whom  I  write  to  grow  somewhat  dissatisfied; 
for  after  all  his  pains  his  own  house  had  failed  to  cap- 
ture the  prize.  He  had  not  made  it  fanciful  enough. 
His  property,  however,  advanced  so  rapidly  in  value 
upon  his  hands,  and  was  considered  so  beautiful  withal 
by  those  of  the  ultra-Jacobin  party,  that  about  the  year 
1869  he  was  enabled  to  dispose  of  his  disappointment 
for  $50,000.  And  I  do  not  want  to  leave  you  to  sup- 
pose that  in  this  sale  there  were  considerations  of 
exchange  or  mortgages  entailing  a  modicum  of  equity 
as  the  only  cash  transaction  happening  so  frequently  in 
the  difficult  real  estate  deals  we  effect  to-day.  No,  the 
$50,000  represented  all  cash,  which  ample  fortune,  to- 
gether with,  perhaps,  as  much  again,  this  remarkable 
person  managed  to  lose  in  the  national  liquidation  of 
the  early  seventies.  Fancy  $100,000  getting  away 
very  easily  from  any  one  in  his  right  senses  now  I 

The   only  explanation   that  can   be   offered  why  so 
many  of  the  snug  fortunes  of  those  best  and  worst  of 


PLATE  lATII 


plate:  1115^. 


Reign  of  Terror — Its  Negatrce   Value 

times  miraculously  disappeared  is  to  be  tound  in  the 
hypothesis  that  the  majority  of  the  people  were  utterly 
incompetent  both  by  education  and  experience  to 
manage  the  vast  amounts  of  money  that  had,  as  magic, 
rolled  up  while  they  slept. 

But  there  were  two  kinds  of  Jacobin  houses,  there 
were  the  sincere  Radicals  (see  Plate  LVIII),  and  the 
Scaramouches  (see  Plate  LIX).  In  other  words  it 
was  another  struggle  between  the  Girondists  and  the 
Mountain — the  moderately-minded  folks  and  the  ultra- 
revolutionists.  Examples  of  the  Scaramouches  are  be- 
coming difficult  to  obtain,  they  give  the  present 
generation  such  indescribable  pains  in  the  head  to  be 
continually  seeing  them  that  every  year  their  owners 
cause  them  to  be  altered  or  to  disappear  altogether  one 
after  another.  A  perfect  nightmare  of  a  house  upon 
which  I  relied  for  my  piece  de  resistance  in  this  chapter 
was  recently  remodeled  before  I  could  make  a  picture 
of  it  in  all  its  pristine  extravagance  ;  and  the  next  re- 
viewer of  Jacobin  architecture  will  find  the  Scara- 
mouches still  rarer  acquisitions.  But  I  truh  regret 
when  I  see  a  Jacobin  house  of  the  better  sort  (^see  the 

113 


American   Kenais sauce 

one  illustrated  in  Plate  LVIII),  losing  its  character  to 
make  conform  to  a  later  fashion  in  architecture  because 
of  certain  didactic  purposes  which  it  would  serve  as 
originally  designed. 

This  Jacobin  house  exhibits  a  very  creditable  com- 
position after  the  manner  of  the  Reign  of  Terror ;  and 
if  we  accept  the  standard  by  which  we  judge  the  newly 
invented  architecture  of  our  own  day  which  I  had  the 
honor  to  illustrate  in  the  second  chapter  of  this  review 
(see  Plate  VIII),  the  Jacobin  house  has  but  one  fault 
— a  fault,  by  the  way,  that  admits  of  argument,  too — 
it  is  out  of  fashion.  The  two  designs  are  equally 
original,  equallv  dauntless  and  equally  successful  from 
the  standpoint  of  harmony,  good  lines,  balance,  pro- 
portion and  all  the  more  obscure  terms  artists  invoke 
to  impress  the  neophyte  while  often  groping  in  the 
dark,  themselves  for  the  touchstone  whereby  they  may 
discern  what  is  good  and  what  is  bad  in  architecture. 

Now,  every  well-trained  mind  has  the  sense  of  order 
developed  to  a  very  high  degree,  and  everything  that 
tends  toward  order  and  harmony  is,  iiaturally,  grateful 
to  it;  while  that  which  tends  to  disorder,  want  of  pur- 

114 


?:ate  i.x. 


ANCO-AMEKICAX     ROOF,   TYPICAL  EXAMPLE. 


[acobin  architecture  was,  at  least,  symmetrical. 


Reig?i  of  Terror — Its   Negative   Value 

pose  and  method  is  always  repugnant.  Hence,  it  we 
eliminate  the  matter  of  fashion,  I  cannot  see  wherein 
newly  invented  architecture  has  any  material  advantage 
over  that  less  recently  invented  except  that,  in  some 
ways,  we  have  in  the  former  a  much  simpler  design. 
The  Jacobin  house  is  over-decorated ;  but  we  must 
give  it  odds  as  in  a  handicap  to  make  up  tor  the  prog- 
ress in  matters  of  taste  the  nation  is  supposed  to  have 
made  in  thirty-five  years.  Strip  it  ot  its  meretricious 
ornament,  if  you  please,  and  I  prefer  the  lighter  grace 
of  the  Jacobin  exemplar. 

Still,  granted  for  the  moment  that  these  two  anti- 
thetical schools  of  design,  both  palpable  products  ot  the 
modern  brain  enfranchised  trom  all  considerations  ot 
precedent,  are  equal  measured  by  the  laws  ot  harmony 
and  losric  alone,  it  does  seem  almost  beyond  belict  that 
the  newly  invented  architecture  of  this  epoch,  for  which 
such  fine  promises  are  made  in  all  good  taith  by  rep- 
resentative architects,  is  destined  to  acquire  quite  the 
discreditable  reputation  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  and  by 
the  inconstancy  of  fashion.     Yet,  is  it  not  inevitable? 

The  only  attribute  that  perpetuates  a  style  of  archi- 

"5 


American   Re?iaissance 

tecture  in  the  resistless  march  of  events  is  the  historic 
atmosphere  the  said  style  may  be  made  to  embody. 
For  this  and  nothing  else  has  posterity  the  slightest  use. 
Clever  as  were  the  architects  of  the  Jacobin  houses — 
and  I  consider  some  of  them  to  have  been  very  clever 
— clever  as  are  the  inventors  of  our  newest  type  of 
building  expression,  there  are  no  inherent  qualities  in 
the  work  of  either  school  of  design  that  will  serve  his- 
torical succession.  Invented  architecture  has  no  more 
atmosphere  than  exists  upon  the  surface  of  the  moon. 
It  may  divert  popular  fancy  for  a  time.  We  may  dis- 
cuss the  subtleties  of  mass  and  moulding  to  satiety. 
To  the  human  heart  by  which  we  live,  dependent  upon 
personal  associations,  these  abstract  discussions  mean 
just  abdut  as  much  as  love  means  in  tennis.  Harmo- 
nious lines  have  merely  a  negative  value,  they  do  not 
grate  upon  the  nerves,  they  do  not  offend  the  eye;  but 
unless  the  personal  reminiscence — the  history  of  one's 
antecedents — is  discernable  through  the  academic  in- 
tegument, the  lines,  themselves,  cannot  long  satisfv  the 
mind  reaching  out  for  com[)anionship  in  all  its  con- 
cerns. 

ii6 


ptatp:  lxi. 


1   never  was  so  glad  to  gel   home,   in  my  life.' 


Reign  of  Terror — Its  Negative   Value 

Were  it  not  for  these  psychological  needs  of  ours, 
one  might  do  much  worse,  even  now,  than  build  him- 
self a  not  too  grotesque  Scaramouch  house.  Jacobin 
architecture  was,  at  least,  symmetrical  (see  Plate  LX), 
and  in  plan  that  it  was  eminently  sensible  cannot  be 
denied.  The  rooms  were  square,  commodious  and 
airy,  amplified  by  numerous  bay-windows,  besides  being 
so  arranged  as  to  open  en  suite  with  either  folding  or 
sliding  doors.  The  windows  were  tall,  generally  ex- 
tending from  fioor  to  ceiling,  affording  the  best  of  light 
and  ventilation.  The  second  story  enjoyed  the  relative 
advantages  of  the  first,  while  every  cubic  inch  of  the 
thirtl  story  was  available  for  bedrooms  owing  to  the 
economy  there  is  in  the  Mansart  roof  Then,  piazza 
space  was  generous  to  a  fault,  a  porte-coclicre  went 
without  the  saying,  and  I  must  add  that  in  all  this 
there  was  a  gracious  note.  Indeed,  there  is  no  good 
reason  that  I  can  see  why  we  should  not  exploit  Jaco- 
bin architecture  to-day,  save  one,  and  it  is  just  that : — 
"  Man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone." 


117 


CHAPTER   IX 


FASHION    IN    ARCHITECTURE 


The  milestones  of  art  are  the  signboards  of  history. 
Pohtical  moves  may  or  may  not  signify.  Treaties 
international  are  usually  effected  by  skilful  diplomacy, 
foes  may  be  bluffed  by  naval  and  military  manoeuvres; 
but  the  art  of  a  nation  betrays  its  innermost  confidences 
— ^the  stuff  whereof 'tis  made. 

If,  however,  as  happened  at  the  Centennial  Exposi- 
tion in  1876,  a  political  advent  coincides  with  one 
in  art,  that  milestone  becomes  an  epoch-marker  extra- 
ordinary. In  1876  the  arts  of  the  world,  for  the  first 
time,  were  made  to  pass  before  this  people  as  an  allur- 
ing pageant,  and  a  general  desire  to  avail  ourselves  of 
them  returned  to  replace  the  vacuum  that  had  existed 
since  the  platform  of  Andrew  Jackson  denounced  the 
refinements  of  life  as  attributes  of  an  overbearing 
aristocracy,  patroons  and  manor-lords,  and  necessarily 

118 


PLATK   I.XII. 


ULTRA-FASHIONABLE,  QUEEN-ANNE  ARCH  nECTURE. 


lASHIONAr.l.E   HOUSE— EASTLAKE  SCHOOL. 


L 


Fashion  in   Architecture 

fraught  with  every  danger  to  a  nation's  Hberty  and 
strength. 

But  let  us  see  how  unintelligently,  nevertheless,  we 
went  about  the  new  art  movement.  Like  the  North 
American  Indian  who  habitually  first  learns  the  vices 
of  civilization,  we  were  not  slow  to  discover  the  mere- 
tricious in  whatever  art  the  old  world  chose  to  exhibit, 
and  this  we  began  assiduously  to  adapt,  especially  in 
the  field  of  applied  ornament. 

A  school  of  design  called  the  "  Eastlake  school " 
(Plate  LXII),  I  believe,  was  the  first  to  emerge  from 
the  confused  mass  of  ideas  with  which  the  American 
brain  became  suddenly  surcharged.  As  the  Rococo  in 
France  had  been  called  down  by  the  Empire,  so  was 
our  Scaramouch  architecture  ot  the  Reign  ot  Terror, 
with  all  its  extravagant  circular  work,  called  down  by 
the  Centennial,  and  straight  lines  innumerable — con- 
geries of  straight  lines — became  the  rage.  Mouldings 
were  no  longer  returned,  but  died  against  perpendicular 
members  the  faces  of  which  were  also  ornamented  by 
lines.  With  the  jig-saw  still  dangerously  convenient 
there  was  shortly  evolved  from  the  Eastlake  propaganda, 

119 


American   Renaissance 

at  first  devoted  to  the  manufacture  of  furniture,  an 
American  travesty  of  the  eighteenth  century  chalet  of 
Switzerland.  The  historic  cnalets  were  covered  with 
ornament.  On  close  inspection,  however,  this  orna- 
ment was  easily  seen  to  be  hand  carving  of  the  most 
skilful  description;  but  never  mind,  our  jig-saws  could 
fake  it  sufficiently  well  to  please  a  not  over-fastidious 
public  taste,  and  it  is  hence  we  derive  fashionable 
house  number  one. 

But  the  Eastlake  style  was  not  the  only  product  of 
the  Centennial.  Contemporary  if  not  coordinate  was  the 
Romanesque  revival  undertaken  by  H.  H.  Richardson 
(see  Plate  V),  also  a  certain  type  of  Victorian-Gothic 
(see  Plate  LXIII)  associated  more  or  less  with  the 
name  of  Richard  Morris  Hunt,  neither  of  which  could 
be  expressed  in  wood,  and  therefore,  represented  the 
more  expensive  fashions.  The  references  to  the  Ro- 
manesque revival  which  occur  in  Chapter  I  of  this 
review  will  answer,  I  hope,  for  that  fashion  in  archi- 
tecture, so  I  will  proceed  with  some  desultory  reflec- 
tions upon  the  \^ictorian-Gothic  style. 

Mr.  Hunt  was  probably  the  most  remarkable  archi- 


I'l.ATK    1  XIII. 


Fashiofi  in  Architecture 

tect  this  country  has  produced.  His  professional  train- 
ing occupied  some  twelve  years  of  his  life,  which  he 
spent  mostly  in  universities  abroad.  He  told  me 
this  himself  when  I  called  upon  him,  now  many  years 
since,  for  encouragement  and  advice.  He  sat  me  u})on 
a  high  stool  in  his  private  office,  and  related  about 
twelve  chapters  of  his  memoirs,  as  nearly  as  I  can  recol- 
lect, i.  e.,  one  chapter  for  each  year  of  his  prodigious 
scholarship,  all  of  which  I  have  no  doubt  was  intended 
for  my  good,  which  I  trust  it  has,  in  some  measure, 
accomplished.  Returning  to  this  country  laden  with 
scholastic  honors,  for  twenty-five  years  this  brilliant 
diplomc  concerned  himself  principally  with  academic 
detail.  Rarely  did  he  go  beyond  the  integument  of  a 
structure  with  his  characteristic  impress,  apparently 
satisfied  to  decorate  according  to  the  canons  of  the 
Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  the  architecture  sui  generis  of 
America. 

About  this  time  the  Victorian-Gothic  school  of  de- 
sign was  advertising  its  merits,  in  which  school  Mr. 
Hunt  found  a  congenial  medium  to  exploit  his  essen- 
tially grammatical  detail,   and    Bellwood  at   Madison, 


American   Renaissance 

New  Jersey,  supplies  me  a  fine  example  ot  this  once 
very  fashionable  architecture  and  of  Mr.  Hunt's  work 
of  that  period.  In  1 897  I  was  consulted  by  Mr.  Bell, 
who  had  purchased  the  place  from  Mr.  Twombly,  re- 
garding a  proposed  extension  to  the  house.  Although 
not  at  all  in  sympathy  with  what  Montgomery  Schuy- 
ler calls  Mr.  Hunt's  "  staccato  style,"  I  remembered 
the  episode  of  Michelangelo  and  the  plans  of  St.  Peters 
by  Bramante,  and  advised  that  the  ruling  spirit  in  any 
new  work  directly  attached  to  the  main  building  of  the 
estate  should  be  Victorian-Gothic  notwithstanding  that 
the  style  had  gone  completely  out  of  vogue,  and  I 
myself,  had  been  obliged  to  remove  some  of  the  inte- 
rior woodwork  for  Mr.  Bell,  which,  while  academic  in 
every  line,  was  crying  ugly — so  ugly  that  nobody  could 
look  at  it  a  minute  without  irritability.  But  my  devo- 
tion to  art  lost  me  the  only  profitable  part  of  the  work, 
for  Carrcre  and  Hastings  were  subsequently  employed 
to  erect  an  Elizabethan  end  which  I  have  taken  care 
not  to  show  in  the  illustration,  not  because  of  lack  ot 
architectonic  merit  in  the  extension,  but  because  it  im- 
pairs just  so  much  ot  the  historic  value  of  the  subject. 


Fashion  in  Architecture 

Technically,  Bellwood  is  admirable.  It  looks  to  me 
just  like  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  and  the  Congress  of 
Berlin  or  the  period  at  which  the  \'ictorian  age  was  in 
the  midst  ot  glory,  but  trom  the  standpoint  of  true, 
Anglo-Saxon  home  feeling,  it  does  not  satisfy.  Mr. 
Hunt  was  an  academician  above  everything.  We  see 
this  one  idea  in  all  his  early  work,  its  culmination  re- 
gardless ot  ugliness  being  exploited  in  the  Tribune 
Building  in  Park  Row. 

But  a  new  mission  in  life  awaited  Mr.  Hunt.  After 
all  these  years  ot  mediocrity  ot  talent,  and  when  he 
was  passed  fifty  years  ot  age,  it  was  as  it  some  angel 
had  descended  in  the  night  while  he  slept,  and  had 
whispered  the  one  magic  wortl  with  which  he  was  ever 
after  to  immortalize  himself  namely — "Adaptation!" 
For  suddenly,  without  a  word  of  warning,  this  remark- 
able man  designed  the  house  of  W.  K.  \^anderbilt  at 
the  corner  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Fifty-second  Street, 
the  pioneer  and  a  very  beautiful  adaptation  of  French 
Renaissance  which  made  its  architect  famous  almost 
before  it  was  completed  (Plate  LXX).  More  than 
this  his  success  with  the  new  medium  ot  expression  in 

123 


American   Renaissance 

which  Mr.  Hunt  soon  received  other  commissions,  at- 
tracted to  his  office  the  Hte-long  cHents  ot  other  archi- 
tects to  whom  no  angels  had  whispered,  and  who  were 
without  sensations  of  their  own.  Notably  was  it  so  in 
the  case  of  Mrs.  Gerry,  who  had  just  come  into  posses- 
sion of  her  father's  money,  and  who  did  not  hesitate  to 
turn  down  her  father's  architects  as  well  as  those  who  had 
faithfully  served  her  husband  in  order  that  Mr.  Hunt 
might  build  her  new  house  at  Sixty-first  Street ;  while 
even  the  late  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  would  not  positively 
decide  upon  the  amplification  of  his  enormous  dwelling 
at  Fifty-eighth  Street  until  Mr.  Hunt  had  consulted 
with  his  architect.  This  was  a  signal  tribute  to  Mr. 
Hunt,  and  required  the  greatest  delicacy  upon  his 
part,  to  which  I  believe  he  was  equal. 

Injustice  to  the  apparent  partiality  of  the  adaptation 
angel  for  Mr.  Hunt,  I  must  say  that  he  was  not  entirely 
alone  in  her  favors,  but  that  there  were  other  architects 
who  had  learned  how  to  adapt  English  Renaissance  of 
the  Georges  as  cleverly  as  Mr.  Hunt  could  adapt 
French  chateaux,  and  who  were,  therefore,  not  seriously 
inconvenienced.     But  I  see   I  am  running  before  my 

124 


pi,A'i'Er-^vXB'^'' 


A  QUEEN-ANNE  HOUSE  AT  SHORT   HILLS,  N.  J. 

Fredehick  B.  White  (deceased).  Architect. 


7Fi 


AN   ULTRA-FASHIONABLE  COLONIAL  HOUSE  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY.   1904. 


Fashioji  hi  Architecture 

horse  to  market,  and  must  reserve  the  consideration  of 
this  later  architectural  development  tor  a  chapter  upon 
the  art  ot  adaptation  while  I  return  tor  the  present  to 
"  Fashion  in  Architecture." 

And  now  I  come  to  a  much  execrated  style  ot  archi- 
tecture—the  Oueen  Anne  style,  the  last  direct  influence 
ot  the  Centennial  Exposition  and  the  first  fashion  to 
incorporate  the  vital  spark  ot  Anglo-Saxon  home  feel- 
ing. It  was  the  suggestion  of  historic  home  atmos- 
phere, though  much  disguised  with  American  nonsense, 
that  appealed  to  the  better  educated  people  without 
their  knowing  it.  They  thought  Oueen  Anne  archi- 
tecture to  be  merely  another  clever  fashion,  more 
clever  because  odder  and  stranger  than  any  ot  its  pre- 
decessors; indeed,  the  architects  themselves,  most  ex- 
pert with  its  vagaries,  could  not  have  told  ^()u  the  real 
secret  of  its  popularity.  Like  all  tashions  in  archi- 
tecture, it  was  burlesqued  and  ruined  while  its  most 
active  votaries  still  living  have  passed  on  to  a  higher 
plane — the  plane  of  adaptation — and  do  not  like  to 
reflect  upon  the  Oueen  Anne  houses  they  once  erected. 
The  fact  of  it  was,  the  nation  was  groping  in  the  dark, 

125 


America?!  Renaissance 

and  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  it  is  groping  in  the  dark 
still ;  but  we  have  learned  this  much  beyond  refutation  : 
a  purely  sensational  and  affected  style  of  architecture 
such  as  was  the  Queen  Anne  style  practised  in  this 
country  is  relegated  now  to  the  cheap  speculative 
builder ;  the  better  class  of  Americans  know  that  the 
secret  of  successful  architecture  does  not  lie  in  odd 
conceits  and  invention,  at  any  rate. 

There  was  once  a  young  man  named  Frederick  B. 
White,  whose  short  and  brilliant  life  is  worth  putting 
on  record  here.  For  if  there  was  ever  an  architect  who 
was  facile  princeps  with  Oueen  Anne  architecture,  it 
was  he.  He  came  from  Princeton  University  at  a  time 
when  the  revival  was  in  its  first  flush,  and  nobody,  it 
seems  to  me,  ever  grasped  the  spirit  ot  the  style  in  so 
admirable  a  way.  In  Plate  LXIV  I  have  the  honor 
of  presenting  an  edifying  example  ot  this  architect's 
work,  the  Oueen  Anne  dwelling-house  at  its  best,  and 
between  this  example  and  the  Oueen  Anne  house 
shown  in  Plate  LXII  the  reader  will,  without  doubt, 
note  many  degrees  of  deterioration  in  both  taste  and 
harmony. 

126 


'PLATE 'ILXV' 


^^k 


Fashion  in  Architecture 

To  make  his  audience  at  the  Brooklyn  Tabernacle 
laugh  the  late  Dr.  Talmage  called  the  Queen  Anne  style 
the  most  abominable  of  all  styles  of  architecture.  But 
when  legitimately  developed  there  is  nothing  the  matter 
with  the  Queen  Anne  style  at  all.  It  was  the  Jacobin 
and  bastard  features  without  antecedents  and  raison 
d'etre  that  brought  it  into  ridicule,  and  caused  a  com- 
posite style  of  American  dwelling-house.  Queen  Anne 
in  motive  but  Romanesque  in  detail,  to  make  the 
necessary  apologies  to  the  public  in  the  guise  of  an 
improved  substitute.  (See  Plate  LXV.)  Though  an 
avowed  composition  crossed  by  this  strain  and  by  that, 
the  Queen  Anne  substitute  was  yet  academic  and  cor- 
rect  in  all  its  detail,  and  has  survived  to  this  day.  I 
mean  to  say  that  this  ingenious  composite  style  is  still 
exploited  by  representative  architects.  It  can  be  made 
to  simulate  home-feeling  after  a  fashion,  although  there 
is  always  that  bizarre  note  present  which  characterizes 
fashion  as  its  first  object,  while  by  no  stretch  of  the 
imagination  may  we  associate  our  ancestors  or  history 
with  such  a  palpably  modern  American  suburbanite  as 
is  illustrated  herewith. 

127 


AmericciJi   Renaissance 

I  know  not  whose  perspicacity  it  was  that  first  dis- 
covered in  the  Colonial  exemplars  of  the  Grand  Epoch 
a  fashion  the  popularity  of  which  was  soon  to  eclipse 
all  the  foregoing  fashions  I  have  enumerated,  and  which, 
moreover,  continues  to  be  most  in  vogue.  But  the 
Colonial  germ,  during  the  early  eighties,  seems  to  have 
been  in  the  air  and  sporadic  throughout  the  country. 
It  is  the  greatest  fallacy,  however,  to  say,  as  many 
learned  reviewers  of  Colonial  architecture  do,  that  its 
symmetry,  restfulness  and  good  proportion  generally 
caused  it  to  rise  superior  to  other  schools  of  design, 
because  that  is  not  true.  The  preceding  styles  properly 
developed  all  had  compensating  virtues.  The  secret 
of  the  Colonial  revival  was  the  same  inherent  vital 
spark  that  had  previously  commended  the  Queen  Anne 
architecture,  only  the  Colonial  houses  possessed  it  to  a 
far  greater  degree.  For  it  was  not  only  English  his- 
tory, always  intimately  associated  with  our  own,  that 
they  expressed,  but  authentic  memoirs  of  the  American 
people  themselves. 

To  the  first  Colonial  revivalists  the  true  merit  of  the 
Colonial    houses    was  entirely    latent    in  them,  though 

128 


Fas/lion  in  Arclntecture 


■r-  x/' 


v./^>^ 


129 


American   R enaissance 

influenced  by  it  as  by  a  magnet ;  and  I  regret  that  the 
cleverest  architects  to-day  are  still  working  upon  the 
fallacious  formula  of  symmetry,  restfulness  and  good 
proportion  while  they  often  garble  American  history 
with  much  interpolated  foreign  material  and  anachron- 
ism. I  do  not  want  the  reader  to  suppose  that  the 
ultra-fashionable  Colonial  house  herein  illustrated  (Plate 
LXIV),  was  the  work  of  the  cleverest  architect  in 
America,  but  I  needed  to  make  clear  this  point 
about  interpolated  material,  and  so  have  selected  a 
most  unblushing  example  of  it. 

On  page  i  29  I  submit  a  hurriedly  executed  sketch 
of  one  of  our  earliest  adaptations  of  a  Colonial  house 
of  the  Grand  Epoch.  This  house  was  designed  in  1885 
by  some  of  our  cleverest  architects  indeed,  though  it  is 
extremely  doubtful  if  they  had  any  deeper  purpose  in 
it  than  to  exploit  a  fashionable  dwelling  for  Newport 
at  the  time.  To-day,  these  same  architects  would  do 
it  very  differently.  On  no  account  would  they  put 
two  Palladian  windows  with  huge  sheets  of  plate  glass 
in  such  close  conjunction  as  is  seen  in  the  sketch  im- 
posing  triplet   windows  with    cornices,    elaborated    by 

130 


i^i.ATEi'tX'^t, 


DOORWAY  AT  SHARON,  CONN. 

"By  evening  I  was  so  tired  looking  at  fashionable  architecture  that  my  invitation  to  supper  at  Aunt 
Muriel's  was  grateful  beyond  words.  We  had  sugar-cured  ham  (cured  on  the  place)  home-made  bread,  toasted 
and  buttered,  Ceylon  tea,  brewed  at  table  from  an  antique  Dresden  tea-caddie,  old-fashioned  raised  cake, 
and  honey  as  put  up  by  the  bees." 


Fashion   ni   Architecture 

applied  ornaniciit  directly  overhead.  Such  modern 
obtrusion  wouUl  he  relegated  to  their  draughtsman 
who  has  set  up  in  business  tor  himselt,  and  to  whom 
they  might  direct  the  poorer-class  client  seeking  a  low- 
priced  plan.  Experience  alone  has  tauglit  these  archi- 
tects that  the  c-loser  the  adaptation  up  to  a  certain 
point,  the  greater  the  success.  I  do  not  believe  that 
they  ever  think  ot  expressing  history  in  executing  their 
designs.  Certainly,  they  do  not  look  upon  their  pro- 
fession as  eleemosynary  to  make  the  world  a  more 
beautiful  world,  a  kindlier  world,  a  ha{)pier  world  tor 
mankind  generally.  The  chances  are  they  are  still 
figuring  very  closely  with  American  cunning  and  ex- 
pediency tor  commercial  martinets,  whose  tavor  means 
the  largest  commissions,  and  whose  unwelcome  personal 
influence  we  so  often  run  across  when  least  expecting 
in  modern  architecture,  and  which  is  sure  to  disenchant 
us  with  it. 


131 


CHAPTER   X 


ADAPTATION 


A  REPRESENTATIVE  architect  in  New  York  city  has 
declared  impressively,  "  We  are  no  longer  architects, 
but  adapters!"  To  him,  looking  upon  his  own  achieve- 
ment and  that  of  his  contemporaries  as  well  as  the  gen- 
eral tendency  of  the  times  in  which  we  live,  it  seemed, 
indeed,  he  had  framed  an  unimpeachable  aphorism.  It 
is  a  funny  thing  about  architecture  : — nearly  as  it  con- 
cerns our  every  day  needs,  much  as  it  is  criticised  about 
our  ears,  our  knowledge  of  it,  nevertheless,  continues  to 
be  absurdly  inexact  and  experimental.  I  am  speaking 
now  of  architecture  as  a  fine  art,  not  as  the  science  of 
an  engineer.  One  has  only  to  read  the  reviews  to  note 
how  little  the  authors  themselves  know  to  tell  us,  how^ 
they  go  'round  and  'round  the  animal,  with  more  or  less 
entanglement,  as  we  have  read  of  picadors  doing  in  a 
bull   fight.     And  when  they  have   finished  can  we  call 

132 


ri.ATE  j^Yii; 


Adaptation 

to  mind  a  single  statement  wherein  they  have  com- 
mitted themselves  to  anything  definite  V  The  whole 
proposition  architectonic  is  to  the  average  reviewer  an 
egregious  bugbear  before  which  he  is  anything  but  sure 
of  himself. 

He  hints  at  the  mysteries  of  design,  half  advocating, 
halt  condemning,  the  two  salient  American  traits — 
namely,  originality  and  enterprise ;  for  he  readily  sees 
that  if  he  commends  those  traits  unequivocally,  he 
must  acknowledge  the  architects  of  our  Reign  of  Ter- 
ror to  have  been  the  greatest  of  all  American  architects 
whose  work  has  passed  into  history,  as  they  were 
assuredly  the  most  original  and  enfranchised.  And  this, 
ot  course,  would  never  do  tor  the  Delia  Cruscan  critic 
of  America. 

Upon  the  other  hand,  he  is  expected,  by  a  species  of 
professional  jealousN  which  is  somehow  perennial,  to 
cavil  at  that  kind  ot  architecture  called  at  the  present 
time  "adaptation."  From  which  fault-finding  the 
reader  gathers  that  adaptation  is  but  a  polite  synonym 
for  cribbing  and  thieving  trom  the  masterpieces  of 
antiquity.    Then,  while  preparing  his  argument,  numer- 

133 


A?nerica7i   R enais sauce 

ous  contradictory  things  suggest  themselves  to  the 
reviewer  that  are  exceedingly  difficult  ot  assimilation.  If 
he  be  fair,  sincere  with  himself,  while  caviling  at  adap- 
tation, how  can  he  make  use  of  such  a  class  of  archi- 
tecture as  we  have  exemplified  in  every-day  acquaint- 
ances like  Trinity  Church  by  Upjohn  and  Grace  Church 
by  Renwick,  two  intensely  American  designs,  yet 
gauged  by  the  standard  of  modern  criticism,  out 
and  out  adaptations  of  mediaeval  Gothic  I  Again,  it 
will  not  do  tor  him  to  endeavor  to  extricate  himself 
with  credit  by  declaring  that  adaptation  belongs  by 
rieht  onlv  to  ecclesiastic  edifices,  for  there,  before  one 
in  a  moment,  stands  the  Capitol  at  Washington  sharply 
cutting  a  piece  out  of  the  blue  sky  on  the  horizon  of 
Maryland,  the  pride  of  every  American  citizen,  ac- 
knowledged to  be  the  most  successful  specimen  of 
American  Renaissance  of  its  class  (legislative  buildings), 
yet  the  most  loyal  to  its  Italian  antecedents,  making 
the  newer  State  capitols  with  domes  look  tawdry  in 
consequence,  proportionately  as  they  are  less  Italian  and 
significant  historically.  So  that  altogether  the  case  ap- 
pears to  be  one  hopelessly  involved  and  complicated. 

134 


'>'.'' \  ,',,  - piVATK  ■  i\x\'ik. 


Kh\(;i)OR,  SUMMir,   N 


CANTERBURY   KEYS,    WYOMING,   N.    |. 


IIATE  TXIX. 


'"5  •<'a«S35»y 


Adaptation 

To  cry  out  against  adaptation  is  nothing  new,  peculiar 
to  our  day.  It  was  ever  thus  from  history's  early  hour. 
Popular  criticism  in  France  during  the  seventeenth 
century  was  against  the  Louvre,  Fontainebleau  and 
Versailles  as  being  Italian  palaces  without  significance 
in  France,  save  that  of  national  vacuity  in  the  creative 
faculty.  Saint-Simon,  in  his  memoirs  of  the  epoch, 
makes  out  Louis  Xn\  and  his  principal  architect, 
Hardouin-Mansart,  to  have  been  unskilful  bune:lers. 
But  to  us,  the  splendid  monuments  are  French  Renais- 
sance without  dissent,  thoroughly  French  and  histori- 
cally correct  because  they  coincide  with  the  legitimate, 
historic  development  of  that  nation's  art.  Thev  have 
become  part  of  the  French  landscape,  Italian  no  longer, 
just  as  the  now  familiar  town  house  of  W.  K.  \'ander- 
bilt,  at  Fifth  Avenue  and  Fifty-second  Street,  which  in 
1883  (see  Plate  LXX)  was  so  intensely  French  as  to 
seem  entirely  out  ot  its  element  in  New  York,  has 
gradually  grown  to  look  to  us  what  it  really  a^.va^■s 
was,  i.  e.,  good  American  Renaissance  adapted  from 
the  Valois  propaganda  ot  architectural  composition. 
In  the  more  recent  day  of  Ruskin  it  was  the  fishion  to 

135 


American   Re?iaissa?ice 

belittle  the  work  of  Inigo  Jones  and  Sir  Christopher 
Wren  as  work  of  no  inspiration ;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
there  were  architects,  once  upon  a  time,  envious  ot  the 
talents  of  Michelangelo,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  say 
the  great  Italian  simply  copied. 

In  lieu  of  further  recurrence  to  all  that  has  since 
transpired,  and  is  transpiring  to-day  with  the  same 
moral,  I  should  say  without  qualification  that  adapta- 
tion— let  us  call  it  so  until  we  discover  a  better  term — 
is  the  soul  of  architecture,  presupposing  the  highest 
kind  of  talent,  most  extended  education,  and  artistic 
susceptibility. 

How  would  it  fare  with  an  author  who  coined  words 
habitually  in  preference  to  using  those  given  in  the 
dictionary,  or  who  invented  a  syntax  ot  his  own '?  But, 
of  course,  nobody  in  his  right  mind  would  do  this. 
The  object  of  literature  is  simply  to  adapt  the  words 
and  sentences  to  express  our  thoughts  original  so  far 
as  we  know.  In  architecture  we  have  the  analogy.  An 
architect  is  bound  to  adapt  in  spite  of  himself;  and 
conversely,  the  poorest  adapters  are  the  poorest  archi- 
tects in  whose   hands   the   art   of  adaptation  falls   into 

136 


VLATK   I. XX. 


Adaptation 

manifest  plagiarism — plagiarism  mostly  of  these  archi- 
tects' more  successful  contemporaries  in  America.  But 
the  varying  requirements  of  individual  cases  compel 
even  those  architects  to  adapt  or  else  invent  to  meet 
contingencies  where  no  precedent  is  available,  so  in 
practice  it  has  come  to  be  that  nobody  copies  anything 
exactly. 

Certainly,  nobody  copies  a  building  of  an  earlier 
epoch  that  is  susceptible  of  reincarnation  to-day.  I  ex- 
plained this  point  very  clearly,  I  imagined,  in  an  article 
I  wrote  for  the  House  Beautiful  in  May,  1901,  en- 
titled "  How  to  Make  a  Successful  House,"  which 
magazine  holds  the  copyright  thereof,  so  that  I  cannot 
use  the  particular  reference  here  I  should  like  to  use. 
The  economy  of  the  age  would  not  let  an  architect  re- 
produce Lambton  Castle,  k)r  instance  (see  Plate  LXXI), 
fascinating  proposition  though  it  be,  and  the  architect 
wanted  to  do  so,  and  could  afford  the  expense  of  mak- 
ing the  necessary  minute  examination,  the  necessary 
drawings  and  measurements,  which  I  can  assure  you 
would  be  a  work  onerous  and  tedious  almost  be- 
yond endurance  tor  the   impatient  temperament  ot  an 


American   Retiaissafice 

American.  Centuries  have  elapsed,  and  the  province 
of  the  architect  now  is  to  make  the  castle  perform 
its  whole  process  of  evolution  noiselessly  in  his  brain, 
and  come  down  to  date  so  as  to  meet  the  problem 
of  a  twentieth  century  home  without  disturbing  the 
illusion  of  its  history,  a  process  entailing  concerted 
tension  of  heart  and  brain  to  which  the  conditions 
imposed  by  mere  abstract  architectural  design  are 
puerile. 

I  have  selected  a  Tudor  castle  because  the  field  is 
practically  untouched  in  American  Renaissance  and 
modern  architecture  generally.  If  there  be  fashion  in 
adaptation,  the  fashion  has  been  for  Elizabethan  and 
Jacobean  adaptations  rather  than  Tudor ;  but  the  real 
reason  why  we  have  no  creditable  offspring  of  that  de- 
lightful old  rambler— Haddoil  Hall  (see  Plate  LXXII), 
in  America  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  no  American 
architect  capable  of  exploiting  the  thing  has  thought 
about  it  or  else  he  has  lacked  the  opportunity,  more 
probably  the  latter.  I  have  often  contemplated  that 
ancient  and  wonderful  staircase  on  the  castle  terrace 
while   thrilling  romances  architectural  have   filled  my 

138 


PTATV;  IXXi. 


PLATi:  LXXll. 


PLATE  T. XXI 1 1 


Adaptation 

head,  though  no  appreciative  chent  materiahzed  to 
employ  me. 

Charlecote  Hall  (Plate  LXXIII)  dwells  \w  a  unique 
borderland  ot  the  Elizabethan  style.  What  a  gracious 
subject  this  beautiful  edifice  supplies  for  adaptation  to 
date.  Any  progressive  American  architect  should  be 
able  to  do  it — in  fact,  he  should  be  expected  to  im- 
prove somewhat  u[)on  the  original  with  all  the  moiiern 
science  there  is  at  his  command.  It  is  true  that  metal 
window  frames  and  sashes  are  not  nianufactured  ordi- 
narily in  this  country,  but  it  is  high  time  they  were,  and 
their  appearance  in  the  catalogues  of  what  they  would 
call  in  England  our  ''ironmongers"  cannot  be  delayed 
for  long,  if  indications  count  for  anything. 

The  open-timbered  work  of  Elizabethan  houses  in 
America  has  become  very  common,  and  I  do  not  know 
that  I  may  add  any  observations  of  importance  con- 
cerning this  treatment.  In  the  House  Beautiful  for 
March,  1901,  will  be  found  an  article  upon  the  subject, 
mostly  in  reference,  however,  to  a  cottage  named 
"Canterbury  Keys,"  illustration  of  which  herein  a[> 
pears  (Plate   LXVIII).     Open-timbered  work   is  also 

139 


American   Kenaissinice 

common  to  France,  Holland  and  Germany,  and,  not- 
withstanding an  occasional  inimical  critic  upon  the  way 
we  construct  it  in  America,  is  thoroughly  good  archi- 
tectural development,  and  will  continue  to  live  in  the 
history  ot  the  future  because  it  has  history  of  the  past 
to  tell — delicious  reniiniscences  of  snug  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  homes.  Moreover,  Elizabethan  architecture 
instances  a  scientific  focus  of  the  Gothic  and  Renais- 
sance spirits,  habitually  unfriendly,  where  under 
the  hand  of  the  master  these  spirits  are  made  to 
coalesce  in  love  and  tranquillity  delightful  to  see. 

Mr.  Gotch  in  his  "  Early  Renaissance  of  England" 
calls  all  three  schools  of  design — Tudor,  Elizabethan 
and  Jacobean — uniformly  Renaissance  development  be- 
cause all  were  infiuenced  by  the  architecture  of  Italy, 
though  the  Tudor  style,  hardly  perceptibly ;  but  the 
real  English  Renaissance,  classified  for  the  better  un- 
derstanding of  the  term,  belongs  to  the  later  develop- 
ment under  the  Georges.  And  it  was  to  this  subdivi- 
sion of  the  mighty  subject  that  American  Renaissance 
served  its  apprenticeship,  although  the  articles  of  in- 
denture,  I  contend,  were   legally  canceled  by  the  re- 

140 


PLATE  LXXI\' 


I'l.AlK   LXXV. 


Adaptation 

s[)onsibilities  of  the  ''  Granci  Epoch  "  (see  Cha})ter  V). 
It  there  ever  existed  a  condition  of  unproductive  tute- 
lage in  America  as  is  imputed  by  envious  critics,  it  was 
during  the  Transitional  period.  In  the  earher  chap- 
ters of  this  review,  I  have  defended  American  Renais- 
sance against  all  detracting  imputations  concerning  its 
legitimacy,  its  honor  and  its  merit,  and  I  do  not  think 
I  wish  to  amend  anything  I  have  saiti. 

In  Plates  LXXIV  and  LXXV  I  submit  two  re- 
markable views  of  Hampton  Court,  one,  the  Wolsey 
palace  in  the  earliest  Renaissance,  according  to  Gotch, 
antl  the  other  the  South  palace  (time  of  William  ami 
Mary)  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  in  the  latest.  The 
latter  facade  has  already  served  for  American  adapta- 
tion, and  in  all  probability  will  continue  to  do  so.  being 
very  easily  adapted  to  American  use.  And  if  the  feat 
be  historically  accomplished  the  resulting  composi- 
tion becomes,  ipso  facto.  American  Renaissance,  not 
English,  however  exotic  it  ma\  at  hrst  appear,  and 
although  it  be  the  custom  to  call  such  an  architectural 
development  ''  pure  adaptation."  But  when  we  con- 
sider that  St.  Peter's  cathedral  at   Rome  was  once   an 

141 


American   Re?iaissa?ice 

adaptation,  the  beautiful  library  of  San  Marco  by  San- 
sovino,  also  an  adaptation,  the  Louvre  and  Fontaine- 
bleau,  adaptations  as  well,  I  do  not  know  that  we  need 
be  particularly  scandalized,  nor  do  I  doubt  for  one  mo- 
ment that,  if  our  work  be  good,  it  will  soon  outlive  an 
appellation  ot  uncertain  reflection — a  word,  neverthe- 
less, w^hich  every  so  often  must  play  its  part  in  the  his- 
tory ot  art. 

The  school  of  design  which  has  proved  the  greatest 
attraction  to  the  blossoming  genius  ot  America  is,  of 
course,  French  Renaissance,  preeminently  at  the  time 
I  write.  To  say  that  an  architect  is  a  Beaux  Arts 
man  is  equivalent  to  speaking  ot  a  certain  much  adver- 
tised brand  ot  whiskey,  in  that  compliments  are  super- 
fluous. You  call  him  ''a  Beaux  Arts  man,"  and — 
^^  thafs  alir 

No  Brahmin  ot  India  has  his  taith  more  absolutely 
defined  than  has  the  Beaux  Arts  man  his.  And  he 
must  progress,  and  ply  his  art  as  though  he  were  a 
bishop  on  the  chess-board,  always  in  a  designated  line, 
and  always  with  the  same  local  color  ot  the  place  of 
his  matriculation  except,  we  shall  say,  when  he   is  otF 

142 


2LATE  LXXVI 


,'■',  ^,;  r  ''-' 'J^lAte'lxx 


Adaptatioji 

tor  a  spree,  which,  to  he  sure,  does  him  no  credit,  and 
he  dabhles  in  Colonial,  Elizabethan  and  other  diver- 
sions. But  his  art  is  French  Renaissance,  not  the  grace- 
ful Renaissance  ot  Pierre  le  Nepveu  at  Chambord  (see 
Plate  LXX\^I),  nor  the  romantic  Renaissance  so  insin- 
uating ot'  Azay-le-Rideau  (see  Plate  LXXX'II),  tiie 
designer  ot  which  no  modern  ascription  names,  but  the 
colder,  impersonal,  mathematical  Renaissance  ot  the 
time  ot  \^iollet-le-Duc  or  the  ultra,  over-decorated  Re- 
naissance of  the  last  exposition,  and  the  present  genera- 
tion ot"  French  architects.  The  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts 
(Department  ot"  Architecture)  is  essentially  a  school 
of  material  art  to  which  there  is  no  spiritual  side.  It 
is  the  art  which  we  measure  by  metres  and  centimetres, 
not  an  art  we  may  measure  by  psychical  balances  aiul 
our  affections.  And  the  personal  side  ot  architecture — - 
the  side  which  ministers  so  largely  to  us  when  we  come 
to  that  complex  embodiment  ot  our  jovs  and  sorrows 
complete  in  the  one  word  "home" — well,  sentiment 
has  nothins:  to  do  with  the  case  in  the  estimation  ot 
the  Beaux  Arts  man. 

Of  all  the  historic  chateaux  in  France,  Chenonceau 

143 


American   R  eiia'is sauce 

(see  Phite  LXVII)  has  received  the  most  attention 
from  American  architects.  RepHcas  of  its  fascinating 
tourelles — some  taithtul,  some  deformed — greet  one 
very  frequently  in  the  modern  residences  of  America. 
We  have  to  recognize  the  Chenonceau  dormers,  too, 
though  they  be  dwarfed  and  scjuatted  according  to  the 
hmited  roof  space  at  the  tlisposal  of  the  American  de- 
signer. Such  tremendous  roofs  as  were  supported  with 
ease  by  the  formidable  walls  of  the  old  chateaux  are 
prohibitory  with  us,  that  is,  if  w^e  cipher  with  Ameri- 
can expediency  and  commercial  economy.  But  the 
right  way  to  adapt  a  French  chateau  is  really  to  make 
believe  restore  one,  pretending  for  the  nonce,  that  one 
is  M.  Pierre  Lescot,  M.  Claude  Perrault  or  M.  Gabriel, 
and  that  the  king  or  some  grand  seigneur  of  the  realm 
has  commanded  one's  services  for  the  purpose.  As  in 
the  elevation  of  the  house  for  Mrs.  H.  at  Morristown 
(see  Plate  LXXVIII)  I  made  believe  to  myself  that 
the  mediiEval  tour  w^as  genuine,  already  there,  but 
requiring  immediate  restoration.  It  was  easy  to  set 
imaginary  masons  to  work  pointing  the  machicolations 
and  curtain.      I  made  believe  that  long  disuse  had  van- 

144 


I'l.ATH  LXXVIII. 


Adaptation 

quished  the  portcullis,  leaving  its  yawning  pockets 
to  be  disposed  of.  Commercialism  said  "  wall  them 
up,"  not  I.  It  would  be  a  pity  to  lose  a  particle  ot  the 
thirteenth  century  atmosphere  that  consents  to  linger. 
So  I  decided  upon  a  bold  innovation  as  the  privilege 
of  adaptation.  I  could  anchor  the  chains  tor  holding 
up  the  glass  canopy  over  the  carriage  entry,  in  those 
pockets  that  once  housed  the  arms  ot  the  portcullis; 
and  thus,  the  spooky  old  tour  could  be  saved  intact. 
The  main  part  of  the  American  chateau  is  in  this  case 
supposedly  modern,  developed  from  motives  supplied 
by  the  minor  chateaux  of  France — the  manoirs,  the 
fermes,  with  a  litde  American  household  planning 
within,  necessary  tor  comtort. 

But  you  have  noticed  that  no  American,  however 
rich,  has  yet  amassed  sutiicient  tortune  to  warrant  an 
undertaking  anything  like  an  adaptation  ot  Chambord 
(see  Plate  LXXVI).  A  class  of  architecture  in  itselt, 
the  Valois  shooting-box  is  quite  too  tremendous  in 
extent  for  any  modern  use  as  a  private  domicile.  The 
palace  of  Fontainebleau,  also,  would  entail  most  too 
much  of  a  contract  for  even  the  president  ot  a  trust, 

145 


American   Refiaissajice 

and  I  may  add  to  these  names,  delightful  to  pronounce, 
the  Louvre  (see  Plate  LXIX),  which  the  people  of 
Philadelphia  alone  had  the  hardihood  to  caricature  in 
a  municipal  building.  Shades  ot  Francois  Mansart, 
what  crimes  have  we  enacted  in  thy  name  I  [My 
acknowledgments   to     Mme.    Roland]. 

Perhaps  the  most  inviting  and  as  little  explored  field 
of  architecture  suitable  to  domestic  purposes  in  this 
country  that  I  can  think  of  to  suggest  to  our  talent  is  the 
opportunity  we  have  in  the  Swiss  chalets  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  There  is  a  great  variety  of  types  from 
which  to  choose — high-roofed  chalets  and  low-roofed 
chalets,  chalets  of  stucco  and  chalets  of  wood.  And  there 
never  was  a  sounder  theory  than  that  of  Switzerland  con- 
cerning the  construction  of  wooden  edifices.  I  do  not 
except  Norway,  nor  Sweden,  nor  Jajxui,  for  the  ancient '"'" 
chalets  of  Switzerland  are  in  academic  Gothic,  if  you 
please,  architecturally  of  a  high  order  which  has  withstood 
the  vicissitudes  of  art  and  awaits  the  homage  of  future 
generations.     To  American    architects  who    still  have 

*  Pay  no  attention  to  the  modern  Swiss  chalets.  Thev  are 
infected  with  the  architectural  maladies  we  have  in  America. 

146 


PLATF.  I.XXIX. 


KINGDOK,  FRONT  ELEVATION 


DETAIL  "KINGDOR. 


Adaptation 

more  to  do  with  wood  than  any  other  building  material 
these  chalets  should  prove  both  instructive  and  useful. 
Mr.  Jean  Schopter  has  contributed,  in  the  Architectural 
Record  (New  York),  two  very  interesting  papers  about 
the  eighteenth  century  chalets,  and  I  will  devote  what 
remains  of  my  space  in  this  chapter  to  an  American  chalet 
I  had  some  little  difficulty  in  prevailing  u{)on  its  owner 
to  have,  but  with  which,  now  that  it  is  finished,  he  has 
assured  me  he  is  perfectly  satisfied.  (See  Kingdor, 
Plates  LXVIIL,  LXXIX.) 

Cypress,  which  in  this  part  of  the  country  has  come 
to  be  our  main  reliance  in  the  absence  of  good  white 
pine,  answers  admirably  for  American  adaptations  of 
these  Colonial  houses — let  us  call  them  —of  Switzer- 
land. Most  any  si/e  tinibers  may  be  specified  without 
bankrupting  the  client  or  inconveniencing  the  con- 
tractor, while  some  durable  stain  will  form  an  ex- 
cellent ground  for  a  venerable  patina  by  infinitesimal 
particles  to  attach  itself.  I  confess  mv  onlv  tlisap- 
pointment  in  Kingdor  was  that  I  was  not  permitted  to 
carve  the  scriptural  legends  in  archaic  missal  text  that 
should  always  adorn  the  long  horizontal   timbers  of  a 

147 


A?nericcin   R  eiiais sauce 

"  truly  "  chalet.  For  in  the  most  part  of  the  adapta- 
tion it  became  my  privilege,  much  to  my  unspeak- 
able delight,  to  say  to  the  black  beast  that  besets  the 
path  of  all  architects — namely,  the  everlasting  spirit  of 
commercialism — expressively  what  Beau  Brummel  tells 
the  importunate  bailiffs  in  the  play  :  "  Oh,  go  and  walk 
in  Fleet  Street  I  ' 


148 


PLATE  LXXX. 


w 

<  ■= 

O  < 

^  Id 


O     o 


I'LATK  LXXXI. 


1 

i 

L^i, 

_. 



= 

^ 



— ~ 

«» 



J 


DOORWAY,    IJRISTOL,   K.   1. 


CHAPTER   XI 


CONCERNING    STYLE 


The  result  of  the  best  adaptation  is  the  gradual  for- 
mation of  a  national  style  of  architecture.  The  closest 
adaptation  that  has  been  exploited  in  America  both  in 
recent  and  what  we  call  our  ancient  work,  compared 
with  its  separable  prototypes,  who  shall  say  is  not  un- 
mistakably modern  and  American?  Style  is  never 
evolved  by  the  empirical  architecture  of  irrepressible 
inventors.  Invention  belongs  to  science.  Happily, 
in  the  field  of  art,  everything  was  planted,  arranged 
and  cultivated  for  us  ages  ago,  so  that  we  have  only  to 
wander  as  children,  in  an  enchanted  garden  that  our 
days  are  not  half  long  enough  to  encompass.  We 
observe,  but  wait  for  the  planchette  to  move — to 
guide. 

Style  in  architecture  and  literature  alike  is  some- 
thing which  shapes  itself  unconsciously  to  the  mind — 

149 


Ajnerican   Renaissance 

something  which  will  neither  be  coerced  nor  cajoled, 
but  obeyed.  Style  selects  its  craftsman  rather  than 
craftsmen  their  style.  Style  is  the  master,  and  we  are 
the  students  ever  observing,  listening,  trying  to  under- 
stand, waiting  for  our  cue,  and  finally  speaking  our 
lines  according  to  the  histrionic  ability  there  is  in  each 
of  us,  for  style  is  eminently  dramatic. 

But  the  moment  we  set  up  for  ourselves  and  say, 
"  Go  to,  let  us  make  a  style  I  "  that  moment  we  miss 
our  usefulness  in  the  economy  of  art. 

I  knew  of  a  young  student  of  literature  who,  conva- 
lescing from  an  attack  of  grippe,  was  tound  by  his 
physician  one  day,  sitting  upright  in  bed  surrounded 
by  a  lot  of  new-looking  books.  As  the  visitor  failed 
to  conceal  some  surprise,  the  enthusiast  hastened  with 
an  explanation  for  which  the  reader  is  scarcely  better 
prepared.  "  Doctor,"  he  said,  ''  I  am  reading  Kipling 
for  style  I  "  # 

Now,  no  matter  how  encouraging  to  the  phvsician 
was  the  patient's  interest  in  the  books,  it  was  a  most 
discouraging  thing  as  a  matter  ot  art.  For  you  don't 
want  to  read  anybody  to  copy  his  style,  much   less  a 

150 


I'l.ATK   IXXXII. 


PLATE  LXXXIII. 


DETAIL— MITCHELL  COTTAGE,  EAST  ORANGE, 


Joy  Wheeler  Dow,  Architect. 


Concerning   Style 

contemporary  of  your  own.  And  no  architectural  stu- 
dent should  want  to  imitate  the  style  ot  his  master  or 
employer,  tor  it  is  heresy.      It  is  mockery. 

It  you  have  not  sense  enough  to  listen  to  \()ur  own 
muse,  to  study  the  history  ot  art  for  yourselt,  to  speak 
the  hmguage  ot  architecture  as  all  your  honored  pre- 
decessors have  spoken  it,  following  religiously  the 
splendid  historical  chart  that  is  ever  at  your  service 
for  reference  while  leaving  your  style  to  take  care  ot 
itself — I  am  sorry  for  you. 

In  my  own  very  limitetl  scope  of  usefulness,  I  am 
quite  willing  to  confess  that  I  have  never  bothered 
about  style,  and  do  not  consider  that  I  have  an}'  worth 
mentioning;  although,  I  suppose,  an  occasional  archi- 
tect is  annoyed  [)ast  endurance  by  somebody  who 
comes  with  an  illustration  of  a  particular  piece  of  my 
work  which  has  appeared  in  the  magazines,  recpiesting 
that  my  style  be  copied.  Of  course,  it  is  not  my  style 
that  is  desired,  but  the  expression  ot  Anglo-Saxon 
home  feeling  as  opjiosed  to  whatever  is  advectitious — 
out  of  place  there — however  correct  academically,  and 
according  to  the  rules  of  harmony,  good  form   or  any- 

151 


Americcui   Renaissance 

thing  else  you  choose  to  call  it.  All  tendency  in  my- 
self toward  mannerism,  prejudice,  partisanship  and  eclec- 
tic theory  I  have  endeavored  to  repress,  for  I  found 
that  good  style  needed  no  suggestions  from  me. 

Good  style  means  the  historical  note  which  measures 
the  success  of  an  architectural  design.  It  is  the  distinct 
theme  we  must  be  able  to  recognize  throughout,  no 
matter  how  elaborate  or  original  the  accompaniment. 
To  exemplify  which  point  I  have  selected  the  Searles 
cottage,  erected  in  1889,  at  Block  Island  (see  Plate 
LXXXVI),  not  because  it  was  erected  without  regard 
to  expense  or  financial  returns,  for  there  is  much  do- 
mestic architecture  in  America  erected  quite  as  inde- 
pendently of  either  consideration  which  would  ruin  my 
argument  were  I  to  use  it;  but  because  the  Searles  cot- 
tage is  one  of  the  most  original  designs  in  American 
Renaissance,  without  in  the  least  compromising  good 
style,  that  I  know  of  in  contemporary  work.  It  is  said 
to  have  been  designed  by  a  decorator,  but  in  that  case 
merely  adds  another  instance  of  the  truism  that  there 
are  decorators  who  should  be  architects  and  architects 
who  should  be  decorators.      The  illustration  shows  the 

152 


PLAIK  I.XXVJ\ 


PKINCESSGATE. 


/^Ja.'v*ki*t*  7"!T 


i-aMfe.i^^-y.iK^ 


lM<i.\L  K»LiA  1  K— REAR. 
Jov  Wheei.er  Dow,  Architect. 


PLATE  LXXXV. 


r"      -J 
',1     < 


si  > 

>  5 

p  -> 

< 


PLA'lE    ]. XXXVI. 


SEARLES' COTTAGE— EXEMPLIFYING  ARCHITECTURAL  STYLE. 


THE  MODERN  AMERICAN  DWELLING— EXEMPLIFYING  FASHION. 


PLATE    I. XXXVI. 


SEARLES'  COTTAGE— EXEMPLIFYING  ARCHITECTURAL  STYLE. 


THE  MODERN  AMERICAN  DWELLING— EXEMPLIFYING  FASHION. 


Concerning   Style 

building  in  process  of  construction,  but  let  us  place  it 
beside  the  illustration  ot  a  very  recent  example  of 
modern  house  and  see  what  happens.  I  think  thereby 
will  be  conveyed  to  the  mind  ot  the  reader  more  in- 
sight of  the  ditFerence  between  style  and  fashion  in 
architecture  (see  Plate  LXXXVI)  than  could  be  ac- 
complished by  writing  in  a  week.  At  last  we  see  a 
house  with  a  cu{)ola  where  the  cupola  has  a  recog- 
nized mission,  and  pleases  rather  than  offends,  as  oc- 
curs also  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  Virginia  (Plates  XXVII 
and  XXV  III),  and  where  it  crowns  the  roof  of  the 
McPh^edris  house  at  Portsmouth  (Plate  XXXI). 
Here  are  instances  where  we  should  miss  the  cupola 
as  part,  not  so  much  of  the  design,  perhaps,  as  ot  the 
stvle.  the  historical  atmosphere,  were  it  absent.  It 
would  be  the  incomplete  sentence,  in  other  words, 
where  the  original  thought  had  not  been  completely 
expressed. 

I  am  aware  that  the  Searles  cottage  is  not  one  that, 
ordinarily,  would  be  called  "pretty."  The  cottage  I 
designed  for  Mr.  Mitchell,  at  East  Orange  (see  Plates 
LXXX,  LXXXII,  LXXXIII  and  XCI),  I  dare  say 

153 


American   Renaissance 

answers  to  that  description  better,  as  does  also  Princess- 
gate,  at  Wyoming,  N.J.  (see  Plates  XVIII,  LXXXIV, 
LXXXIX  and  XCI),  but  I  am  speaking  now  of  style, 
the  picturesque  is  something  else  again.  I  can  fancy 
the  beginner  in  architecture  leaning  over  his  drawing- 
board  and  saying,  "  Well,  that's  the  funniest  Colonial 
house  1  ever  saw  I "  But  the  first  year  of  his  course 
will  correct  the  slight  astigmatism  from  which  he 
suffers.  For,  even  should  he  fail  to  pursue  the  engag- 
ing study  of  style,  style  is  so  insinuating,  because  of 
the  immense  significance  it  has  behind  it,  that  very 
soon  it  will  be  speaking  to  him.  And  while  the 
student  feels  it  only  in  that  first  intangible  stage,  un- 
able to  say  to  himself  what  it  is,  even  while  people 
aver  that  the  Searles  cottage  was  entirely  misplaced  on 
the  treeless  coast  of  a  pelagic  isle,  while  they  tell  him 
that  no  use  could  be  found  for  it  except  as  a  kind  of 
casino,  yet  there  will  begin  to  dawn  upon  him  an  un- 
controllable appreciation,  just  as  began  to  dawn  upon 
the  aged  auditor  in  the  pit  of  the  old-time  playhouse 
at  Paris  during  the  production  of  a  masterpiece  by 
Moliere,   till,   toward  the  end    of  the    second  act,  no 

154 


Ei^ATfv  LXXX\ai. 


STYLE  AND   THE  PICTURE. 
Watkinson  House,  Middletown,  Ct. 


DETAIL— SOUTH  EIGIll  H  STREET.   rHILADELlTIIA, 


PIATK    I.XXXVIII. 


Concerning  Style 

longer  master  of  his  enthusiasm,  he  cried  out  to  the 
author  on  the  stage,  "  Courage^  Moliere !  Voila  la 
vraie  comedie !  "  And  in  good  architectural  style  do 
we  not  see  a  comedy  indeed,  faithfully  enacted '?  Yet, 
of  the  thousand  and  one  things  that  have  gone  to  make 
architectural  style  all  intimately  connected  with  human 
events  the  influence  of  individuals  has  counted  least. 
One  generation  of  builders  has  taken  up  the  work 
where  its  immediate  predecessor  stopped.  Each  genera- 
tion commits  its  blunders,  while  each  adds  the  imper- 
ceptible trifles  of  such  intrinsic  value,  taken  together, 
as  to  have  produced  style. 

The    fashions   of   architecture — they  perish.      Style 
endures. 


155 


CHAPTER   XII 


CONCLUSION 


The  eye  of  an  artist  differs  structurally  not  at  all 
from  the  eyes  of  other  people.  His  constant  having  to 
do  with  lines,  values  and  all  that,  gives  him  an  enviable 
facility  in  delineation,  the  same  facility  that  training 
would  impart  in  any  other  vocation ;  but  it  is  the  man 
— the  artist  temperament  that  exists  behind  the  ocular 
sense  that  denominates  the  artist,  a  matter  of  pure  luck, 
however,  or  of  birth,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing. 

When  nature  issues  his  temperament  to  a  man,  she 
stamps  on  the  back  of  it  the  words  "  not  transferable  " 
rubricated.  By  no  effort  of  his  own  can  he  bestow  his 
temperament  upon  anybody  else  nor  materially  alter  it 
within  himself  He  looks  upon  things  always  in  a 
certain  way — envious  folks  call  it  a  squint — never  may 
he  see  them  in  any  other.  He  struggles  with  a  personal 
bias  so  strong,  that,  in  nine   cases  out  of  ten,  he  had 

156 


Conclusion 

much  rather  die  than  have  to  Hve  his  Hfe  contrary  to 
the  cherished  autonomy  imposed  by  temperament. 

The  artist  contends  with  a  temperament  unusually 
exacting  and,  at  times,  very  inconvenient.  I  remember 
having  to  ride  my  bicycle  twelve  miles  one  afternoon 
some  years  ago,  to  a  bakery  in  another  town  from 
where  I  lived,  to  gratify  a  whim  of  temperament,  I 
suppose,  for  some  particularly  delicious  tea  rolls  that 
were  manufactured  there.  I  felt  I  could  not  possibly 
get  along  with  the  plain  bread  and  butter  I  knew  we 
had  for  supper.  I  purchased  the  rolls,  and  was  tying 
the  precious  bundles  to  the  handle-bars  ot  my  wheel 
when  a  carriage  drove  up  in  front  of  the  bakery.  It 
contained  two  rather  unprepossessing  women  who  were 
evidently  acquainted  with  the  bakers  wife,  judging 
from  the  familiar  way  they  called  to  her  from  the  curb. 
The  baker's  wife  came  out  upon  the  doorstep,  and 
inquired  what  kind  of  bread  she  should  bring  them.  It 
was  then,  without  an  idea  of  causing  the  slightest  shock 
to  the  sensibilities  of  the  man  they  saw,  with  a  bicycle, 
they  replied  with  picturesque  indifference — ''Oh,  any 
kind,  just  so  long  as  it  is  bread  to  till-up  on!"     Over- 

157 


American   Renaissance 

hearing  this  I  could  not  help  making  the  necessary 
mental  memoranda  what  unpromising  subjects  for  art 
influences  were  the  temperaments  of  these  women — 
how  little  education  could  really  do  for  them  I  how 
utterly  impossible  it  would  be  for  them  to  change  their 
temperaments,  and  how,  in  all  probability,  they  had  much 
rather  be  dead  than  to  be  continually  harrassed  by  the 
fastidious  obligations  of  art ! 

But  the  case  I  have  chosen  is,  perhaps,  extreme. 
There  is  a  pleasure  for  most  temperaments  in  art — a 
certain  happiness  that  it  contributes  in  a  mild  way. 
The  average  temperament  experiences  through  art  a 
sensation  akin  to  that  produced  by  music,  and  like 
music  to  the  average  temperament,  art  is  by  no  means 
a  necessity.  It  is  merely  the  graceful  accomplishment 
to  be  cultivated  after  the  serious  business  of  life  is  off 
the  stage  for  the  day,  and  we  turn  to  playthings; 
whereas  in  the  case  of  the  artist,  it  is  his  whole  existence. 
My  mother  ridiculed  me  about  episodes  like  that  of  the 
rolls,  but  always  commended  my  talent  for  drawing. 
Although  I  tried  to  explain,  she  refused  to  believe  that 
my  talent  for  drawing  was  only  one  result  of  the  tem- 

158 


PLATE  T. XXXIX. 


mUitmimmmmmmimmm^ 


*:A.i 

r     ( 

i 

is 

1" 

I. 


m 

=l"l 

m 


''^ 


'"^^^t 


'if  ."A 


idid&. 


^i" 


MISS  sniPLlCnV  — liKR   IKJLSli 


DETAIL  —  PRINCESSGATE. 


Conclusion 

perainent  which  sent  me  for  the  rolls.  For  does  it  not 
naturally  follow  that  if  any  old  bread  will  do-  to  live 
on,  why,  any  old  house  will  do  to  live  in,  and  I  should 
have  had  no  interest  for  anything  better,  certainly  no 
incentive  to  the  laborious  grind  of  the  drawingboard"? 
Still,  in  no  instance,  I  believe,  is  art  or  charity — tor 
they  are  one  and  the  same — wholly  absent,  if  some- 
times obscure,  in  the  temperaments  of  civilized  people. 
Without  the  artistic  sense,  charity  is  the  uncut  diamond, 
it  yet  accomplishes  its  own  mission ;  while  again,  the 
gentle  passion  reveals  itself  in  singular  guises,  we  recog- 
nize it  with  a  little  patience.  Unique  among  which 
guises  let  me  cite  the  astute  financier's  well-known  love 
of  flowers, — and  here  let  me  tell  you  something  besides  I 
It  may  be  a  strange  observation,  but  the  love  of  one's 
fellow  beings,  and  an  iiiordinate  love  of  flowers,  in  a 
man,  rarely  go  together.  Robespierre,  at  the  fete  to 
the  Supreme  Being,  walked  ahead  of  his  colleagues, 
laden  down  with  flowers,  and  away  back  in  the  morn- 
ing of  time  the  avocation  of  Cain  was  the  cultivation 
of  flowers.  So,  whenever  you  see  a  man  passionately 
tond  ot  flowers  (professional  florists  excepted)  you  ma}' 

159 


American   Re?iaissafice 

know  that  every  atom  of  charity  which,  normally, 
should  be  distributed  throughout  his  whole  nature,  has 
been  focussed  at  this  one  point;  and  it  behooves  you 
to  mind  the  painted  notice  to  small  craft  you  have 
seen  suspended  from  the  guardrail  ot  an  awe-inspiring 
ocean  liner  in  port,  namely — 


Keep  clear  of  this  ship's   propellers 


In  his  conservatories,  surrounded  by  brilliant  fiora  from 
all  over  the  world,  it  is  quite  different;  here  you 
will  find  your  astute  financier  the  most  charming  of 
hosts ;  but  in  your  business  deals  with  him,  have  a 
care ! 

No  true  artist  could  be  entirely  happy  to  look  at  the 
world  from  the  financier's  standpoint.  He  may  listen 
attentively  to  the  cunning  of  expediency  fascinatingly 
unfolded,  for  his  own  good,  for  the  good  of  his  family, 
and  the  assurance  of  the  .future,  he  may  heartily  wish 
to^exchange  temperaments  with  that  financier,  tempo- 
rarily, till  he  shall  have  gained  independence  of  the 
world  commercial,   in    vain.     The    unaccommodating 

1 60 


PI. A  IK  XC. 


Conclusion 

temperament  again  will  not  let  him.  He  is  perfectly 
aware  that  there  is  not  halt  enough  in  the  world  to  go 
round,  and  that  he  must  divert  the  earnings  of  other 
people  somewhat  into  his  own  coffers  if  he  is  to  b(" 
entirely  comfortable ;  but  he  had  rather  that  circum- 
stances divert  these  earnings  than  his  own  cupiditv. 
He  hopes  that  God  will,  attier  a  little,  see  how  hard 
He  has  made  it  for  the  people  individually,  and  order 
a  new  dispensation.  It  may  be  a  forlorn  hope,  but  it 
is  none  the  less  a  hope  divinely  implanted  in  every 
true  artist  and  in  every  other  charitable  nature.  What 
else  is  it  that  applauds  the  dramatic  note  whenever 
and  wherever  it  is  struck,  even  though  it  be  tlie  Laura 
Jean  Libby  kind  from  the  mekxlrama  and  the  thread- 
bare theme  of  the  indigent  heroine  who  arraigns  the 
conventional  villain  thus — 

"  I'd  rather  be  the  poor  working-girl  that  I  am  than 
all  your  cruel  gold  can  make  me  ! " 

These  are  the  sentiments  which  reflect  those  of  every 
true  artist.  The  profession  of  architecture  even  more 
than  that  of  the  ministry  should  be  entered  without 
hope  oi  much  hnancial  gain.     For  the  sake  of  good- 

i6i 


American   Renaissa?ice 

ness  don't  believe  any  such  Munchhausen  stuff  about 
it  as  you,  perhaps,  read  in  a  popular  magazine  lately. 
The  preacher's  service  to  God  is  direct,  something 
which  He  must  take  into  consideration  at  least  every 
Sunday;  while  the  service  of  the  architect  is  indirect 
— so  subtle  indeed  as  to  create  the  natural  fear  in  a 
student's  mind  lest  God  forget  about  him  entirely, 
even  to  the  barest  livelihood.  Professor  Ware  of  the 
school  ot  architecture  at  Columbia  College  once  told 
me  that  if  he  paused  for  one  moment  to  consider  how 
very  few  of  the  new  class  of  pupils  which  every  year 
assembled  to  be  instructed  could  succeed  bv  reason 
of  the  inexorable  laws  of  supply  and  demand  alone, 
he  could  not  teach  them.  "  But,"  he  added  with  a 
twinkle  of  satisfaction  in  his  eye  for  having  placed 
his  finger  squarely  on  a  grim  but  unerring  philosophy 
— ''  I  had  much  rather  starve  to  death  in  a  profession 
that  I  loved  than  in  a  business  that  I  hated,  since 
success  in  everything  is  achieved  only  by  the  same 
meagre  percentage." 

I  am  not  forgetting  that  the  profession  of  architect- 
ure is  frequently  turned  into  a  business  enterprise,  run 

162 


i'l.A'IK   XCI. 


PRINCESSGATE  (MOUERN)  DEVELOPED  FROM  DU  TCII  AND  ENcll.ISII 
FARiM-HOUSE  MOTIVES. 


Try  to  Have  the  Rear  of  Your  House  as  Attractive  as   the  Front. 


Conchisioji 

upon  business  principles,  used  merely  as  a  means  to  an 
end,  and  that  end  financial  success — a  state  of  things 
which  has  retarded  the  development  of  American  lie- 
naissance  more  than  any  other  one  factor — but  this 
leads  me  back  again  to  art  and  commercialism,  to  which 
I  have  already  consecrated  a  chapter  of  this  review. 
Let  us  consider  for  the  present  only  the  different  kinds 
ot  architects  we  have  in  America,  so  differently  equipped 
as  to  cause  positive  amazement  while  cataloguing  them. 
What  diversity  ot  talent  confronts  us !  talent,  in 
some  cases,  one  would  say,  that  scarceh'  concerned 
architecture.  I  can  think  ot  no  other  profession  which 
has  quite  so  many  branch  specialists.  Incredible  as  it 
may  seem,  there  are  prominent  and  successful  archi- 
tects— trained  architects  of  ability — who  are  able  to 
draw  plans  but  who  cannot  draw  elevations,  and  others 
who  can  draw  elevations  but  cannot  plan.  There  are 
architects  who  are  skilful  draughtsmen  who  cannot  de- 
sifin,  architects  who  can  desifin  but  cannot  draw  at  all. 
architects  who  can  only  write  specifications  and  super- 
intend— two  very  important  branches  of  the  profession, 
however,  that  usually  go  together — while  stranger  still, 

163 


American   Renaissance 

there  are  practising  architects  who  can  neither  design 
nor  draw  nor  write  specifications  nor  even  superintend, 
but  who  possess  a  wonderful  business  aptitude  and  per- 
sonal magnetism  by  which  they  command  clients  for 
their  partners  or  draughtsmen  who  actually  prepare  the 
drawinfis  and  the  other  instruments  of  service. 

This  class  ot  architects  is,  by  no  means,  confined  to 
America  or  to  the  epoch."  As  long  ago  as  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV^  in  France,  Jules  Hardouin  Mansart 
was  a  shining  example  ot  the  financier-architect.  The 
description  of  him  given  in  Miss  Wormeley's  admira- 
ble translation  of  the  memoirs  of  Saint-Simon  f  is  so 
intensely  interesting  that  I  believe  I  cannot  do  better 
than  to  quote  the  fragments  which  succeed  : 

*  There  is  one  other  kind  of  architect  I  have  failed  to  in- 
clude who  I  believe  is  indigenous  to  America.  I  refer  now 
to  the  man  who  can  neither  draw,  design,  write  specifications 
nor  superintend,  and  who  has  no  business  ability,  but  who 
belongs  to  the  genus  "angel  "  of  a  theatrical  company,  who 
pays  the  rent  of  an  expensive  suite  of  offices,  and  becomes  a 
special  partner,  perhaps,  but  by  no  stretch  of  courtesy,  I 
should  say,  should  be  truthfully  called  an  architect. 

I  Versailles  Historical  Series — Hardy,  Pratt  <5c  Co.,  Boston. 

164 


PLATE   XCII. 


o  "i 


o  « 


±2 


I'LATK  XCIII. 


Conclusion 

"  He  [Hardouin  Mansart]  was  ignorant  of  his  busi- 
ness. De  Coste,  his  brother-in-law,  whom  he  made 
head  architect,  knew  no  more  than  he.  They  got  their 
plans,  designs  and  ideas  from  a  designer  of  buildings 
named  L'Assurance  whom  they  kept,  as  much  as  they 
could,  under  lock  and  key.  Mansart's  cunning  [his 
name  was  probably  assumed  for  what  we  would  call  in 
America  an  'ad.']  lay  in  coaxing  the  king  by  apparent 
trifles  into  long  and  costly  enterprises,  and  by  showing 
him  incomplete  plans,  especially  for  the  gardens,  which 
instantly  captured  his  mind,  and  caused  him  to  make 
suggestions  :  then  Mansart  would  exclaim  that  he  never 
should  have  thought  of  what  the  king  proposed,  went 
into  raptures,  declared  he  was  a  scholar  compared  to 
him,  and  so  made  the  king  tumble  whichever  way  he 
planned  without  suspecting  it." 

"  He  made  immense  sums  out  of  his  works  and  his 
contracts,  and  all  else  that  concerned  his  buildings,  of 
which  he  was  absolute  master,  and  with  such  authority 
that  not  a  workman,  contractor  or  person  about  the 
buildings  would  have  dared  speak  or  make  the  slightest 

i6.^ 


American   Renaissajice 

fuss.  As  he  had  no  taste,  or  the  king  either,  he  never 
executed  anything  fine,  nor  even  convenient  for  the 
vast  expenses  he  incurred." 

The  episode  about  his  bridge  at  Mouhns  that  floated 
down  the  river  to  Nantes  is  excruciatingly  funny  as 
told  by  Saint-Simon,  but  I  must  not  appropriate  the 
space   necessary  tor  its  relation. 

I  cannot  think,  however,  that  the  damage  of  an  occa- 
sional Hardouin  Mansart  in  France  or  a  Mr.  Pecksniff, 
I  may  say,  in  England,  to  the  architecture  ot  cither 
country  has  been  anything  like  as  great  as  that  done 
American  Renaissance  by  their  numerous  colleagues 
upon  this  side  of  the  water.  That  our  modern  architec- 
ture is  as  good  as  it  is,  is  no  less  than  remarkable,  con- 
sidering, too,  how  we  are  always  trying  to  make  it  pay 
financially.  And  when  at  last  there  comes  a  scintillat- 
ing opportunity  where  an  architect  is  no  longer  obliged 
to  turn  out  a  rent-trap,  a  manufacturing  plant,  or  some- 
thing else  that  will  pay  a  given  percentage  upon  the 
investment,  as  happens  in  the  case  of  a  large  country 
house,  the  marks  of  our  national  trade  are  very  apt  to 
obtrude  themselves  in  a  hundred  amusing  ways.     The 

1 66 


Conclusion 

commercial  habit  cannot  l>e  relinquished  in  a  moment, 
and  thus,  unconsciously,  we  betray  ourselves. 

Of  the  modern  country  seats  of  America,  I  should 
select  Biltmore  (see  Plate  XCII),  in  the  North  Caro- 
lina mountains — the  masterpiece  of  Richard  Morris 
Hunt — as  standing  first  and  foremost  at  the  time  I 
write.  It  is  one  ot  the  very  few  examples  ot  domestic 
architecture  we  have  that  can  be  compared  with  the 
historic  castles  of  England  to  which  I  have  referred 
and  we  are  accustomed  to  seeing  illustrated  so  beau- 
tifully in  Country  Life.  We  call  Biltmore  French 
Renaissance  now  ;  it  will  be  American  Renaissance  later 
on.  No  other  of  Mr.  Hunt's  designs  can  begin  to  equal 
it.  You  may  observe  that  Ochre  Court  at  Newport 
has  a  fine  elevation  to  the  sea.  It  is  true.  But  the 
place  is  much  marred  by  an  overgrown  servants'  wing, 
while  the  notorious  Marble-house  appears  to  have  been 
created  under  pressure  when  the  artist  was  overworked, 
for  it  has  neither  his  inspiration  nor  individuality,  merely 
representing  several  thousand  cubic  feet  of  classic  archi- 
tecture which  would  serve  to  better  advantage  for  a 
plate   in  a  text-book.      But  at  Biltmore,  we  have  an 

167 


Americcifi   Renaissa?ice 

original  design  with  the  necessary  attributes — attributes 
which  I  need  not  take  the  trouble  to  enumerate  again, 
having  been  so  particular  about  the  reader's  making 
their  acquaintance  in  the  other  chapters. 

I  remember  I  also  mentioned  the  house  of  H.  W, 
Poor,  Esq..  at  Tuxedo  (see  Plates  XCIII  and  XCIV), 
as  an  example  of  modern  work  in  America  that  might 
withstand  the  odious  ordeal  of  international  comparison. 
Really,  it  is  a  very  simple  thing,  the  Anglo-Saxon  home 
idea ;  tor  the  life  of  me,  I  do  not  see  why  we  have  so 
little  of  it.  The  Jacobean  manor-house  historically 
developed  to  date  is  an  admirable  medium  ot  expres- 
sion, and  in  the  illustration  in  Plate  XCIV  we  may 
discover  one  other  example  of  good  American  Renais- 
sance. If  you  think  the  Tuxedo  house  looks  too 
English  to  be  called  that,  place  it,  it  you  please,  beside 
Blickling  Hall  in  Norfolkshire,  a  genuine  Jacobean 
prototype,  several  hne  illustrations  of  which  will  be 
found  in  the  Architectural  Record  tor  October,  1901. 
Upon  the  long  gallery  ot  the  latter,  I  think,  Mr.  T. 
Henry  Randall,  the  architect  of  Mr.  Poor's  house,  has 
improved.      The  gallery  of  Blickling  Hall  has  some 

16S 


PLA'IK   XCIV 


11.    \V.    I'UOR  HOUSE,  TUXEDO,   N.    V 
T.  Henry  Randall,  Architect. 


PHILLIPS  HOUSE,   LAWRENCE,    L.   I. 
T.  Henry   Randall,  Architect. 


Conclusion 

ugly  features.  In  my  opinion,  this  American  architect 
understands  the  adaptation  ot  a  Jacobean  manor-house 
better  than  an\  other  ot  his  ciay. 

It  is  style  and  historical  development — not  fashion — 
that  produces  the  architectural  comech — its  storx,  its 
personality,  its  life.  And  now  that  I  am  about  to 
speak  again  of  the  most  popular  kind  ot  houses  of  all 
in  America — Colonial  houses,  notwithstanding  the  very 
great  number  of  them  erected  during  the  last  decade 
or  two,  I  am  yet  almost  in  despair  ot  finding  illustra- 
tions where  the  architectural  comed).  its  personality 
and  life  are  to  be  sufficiently  discovered.  Perhaps  the 
firm  of  architects  who  have  been  most  noted  as  spe- 
cialists in  this  line  have  done  nothing  better  than  the 
house  they  designed  in  the  eighties  of  the  last  century 
for  Mr.  William  Edgar,  on  Beach  Street  in  Newport 
(see  Plate  XCV).  This  design  was  always  very  nuich 
superior  to  that  of  the  Taylor  house,  of  which  I  drew  a 
sketch  for  Chapter  IX;  and  as  time  goes  on  the  gap 
between  them  widens,  while  I  do  not  see  that  the  Edgar 
house  loses  by  contrast  with  a  number  of  much  more 
pretentious  successors  in  the  same  style  of  composition. 

169 


American   Kenaissance 

That  there  is  so  much  room  for  general  improve- 
ment in  America  i.  ^what  I  have  to  offer  in  extenuation 
for  the  questionable  sarcasms  into  which  I  have  some- 
times fallen  in  these  articles.  Because  of  its  salutary 
influence,  I  have  found  sarcasm  useful  in  scoring  my 
points,  preferring  it  greatly  to  flattery,  which  D'Israeli 
used,  he  averred,  for  the  same  purpose — he  "  found  it 
useful " — adding,  "  and  when  it  comes  to  royalty  you 
want  to  lay  it  on  with  a  trowel."  I  do  not  know  that 
the  simile  holds  good  as  far  as  that,  and  I  fear  my  sar- 
castic allusions  have  already  become  fatiguing. 

In  glancing  back  over  what  I  have  written,  I  find  yet 
another  class  of  architects  and  another  theory  of  archi- 
tecture to  which  no  credit  has  been  given.  I  refer  now 
to  that  class  of  architects  who  publish  books  of  ready- 
made  plans,  and  who  advertise  for  clients  in  the  peri- 
odicals, and  to  their  theory  of  architecture  which  does 
not  allow  that  the  artist  enters  into  the  proposition. 
This  is  as  I  understand  it,  at  least,  from  one  of  their 
advertisements,  which  reads,  "  Plans  made  not  by  an 
artist^  but  by  an  architect P 

Bored  nearly  to  death  by  having  to  listen  to  unwel- 


IM.AIK  XCV. 


WINDOW  OF  A    DINING-ROOM. 


1^   ■          ^Ji 

THE  EDGAR  HOUSE,   NEWPORT. 


Conclusion 

come  art  discussion  which  to  them  does  not  seem 
either  necessary  or  practical  in  what  they  consider  a 
purely  utiHtarian  business  for  housing  the  people,  they 
have  conceived  a  positive  aversion  to  architecture  as  a 
fine  art.  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  they  mean  by 
the  affectation  and  exaggeration  they  exploit  if  it  is 
not  intended  to  be  artistic;  but  it  is  quite  possible  they 
deprecate  all  that,  themselves,  as  the  necessar)  amount 
of  tawdriness  the  American  people  will  have,  teeliiig 
the  while  unequal  to  educating  such  hopeless  material. 
For  it  may  be  that  I  do  these  wholesalers  of  printed 
plans  a  great  injustice — it  may  be  they  realize,  as  do 
other  architects,  only  too  keenlv.  that  architecture  is 
the  cubic  measure  of  art,  and  requires  an  artist  of  the 
third  power  to  fuss  with  it  successfully,  in  which  case 
I  fancy  I  recognize  even  greater  method  in  their  mad- 
ness. 

THE    END 


171 


INDEX 


ALEXANDRIA,    Va.,    71,    yi; 
Fairfax    house,     71  ;     Carlyle 
house.  71. 
Alice   in   Wonderland,   reference, 

31- 

Alison,  Archibald,  historian 
cited,    108. 

American  Notes,  Dickens"  criti- 
cisms in,  S9-91. 

American  Renaissance  explained, 
17-20;  its  local  color,  21-27; 
sincerity  of,  21-23  J  various  ob- 
servations concerning,  21-27; 
its  derivation,  25-27 ;  outraged 
l)y  modern  Romanesque,  27- 
29;  Andrew  Jackson's  influ- 
ence upon,  41,  48-50;  early 
architects  of,  42-44;  designing 
a  farmhouse  in,  46-4S ;  modern 
farmer's  knowledge  of,  40,  49, 
50;  not  taught  in  schools,  35, 
49,  50;  contrasted  with  archi- 
tecture of  England.  51-5.^.  "J";  \ 
restoration  of  an  old  house. 
55-57  ;  various  motives,  57-60  ; 
roofs,  60 ;  development  under 
aristocracy,    62-78 ;    Washing- 


ton connoisseur  of,  73 ;  origi- 
nality of,  76,  "/"];  in  Annapolis, 
62-64;  i"  Bristol,  81,  82;  in 
Salem,  82,  83;  in  Middletown, 
Conn.,  84,  85 ;  in  Philadelphia, 
85-88;  influence  of  Ruskin 
(iothic,  95-97;  influence  of 
Civil  War,  108-17;  of  Cen- 
tennial Exposition.  118-20,  125; 
Colonial  revival,  128-31  ;  adap- 
tations, 132;  criticised  by  writ- 
ers, 132-34;  apprenticeship  of, 
140-41  ;  injured  by  financiers, 
131,  166;  traditions  of.  40-42; 
legislative  buildings,  134. 

Amplification,  modern,  houses 
injured  by,  75. 

Annapolis.  Md..  62-65.  68,  70.  82. 

Anne  Arundel  Town,  62. 

Applied  ornament.  120.  131. 

Architectural  Record,  articles  in. 
mentioned,  62.  147. 

Architectural  Review,  articles  in, 
mentioned,  80,  102,  104. 

Architecture,  ignorance  concern- 
ing, as  a  fine  art,  132-33,  171 ; 
adaptation,  soul  of,   136;   con- 


173 


Index 


trasted  with  literature,  76,  136; 
plagiarism  in,  137,  151  ;  J'l" 
cobin,  41,  111-15.  117;  Eliza- 
bethan, 138-40;  Tudor,  96, 
140;  Queen  Anne,  125-28;  Ja- 
cobean, 25,  41,  1 38,  140,  168; 
Romanesque,  28 ;  Gothic,  95-97, 
146;  French  Renaissance,  123- 
24,  135,  142-44;  eclectic  style 
a  fallacy,  20;  not  taught  in 
schools,  35,  49,  50;  newly  in- 
vented, 30-33,  114;  American 
extravaganza,  46 ;  atmosphere 
necessary  to,  116;  modern  Co- 
lonial, 128-30;  cubic  measure  of 
art,  171. 

Architects,  different  kinds  of, 
163-65 ;  publishers  of  plans, 
170-71. 

Arnold-Shippen  house.  Fair- 
mount  Park,  69. 

Art  and  charity,  38,  39. 

Art  and  commercialism  con- 
trasted, 37-39- 

Artist  temperament,  156-61. 

Astor  Library,  mentioned,  105, 107. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  105,  106. 

Atmosphere  necessary  to  archi- 
tecture, 116. 

Azay-le-Rideau,  chateau  of,  143. 

gACK-BUILDINGS    of    Phila- 
delphia, 86-88. 
Bancroft,  George,  his  history  of 
United  States  cited,  77. 


Bates   &   Guild   Co.,   publications 

by,  63. 
Beaconsfield,  Earl  of,  mentioned, 

123;  his  use  of  flattery,  170. 
Bell,  Frederick  A.,  buys  the  Dan- 

forth  place  at  jNIadison,  N.  J., 

122. 
Bellwood,  Madison,  N.  J.,  121-23. 
Belmont  houses,  New  York  City, 

2,7- 

Bennett  house.  New  Bedford, 
Mass.,  102,  104. 

Bennett,  James  Gordon,  his  ac- 
count of  an  assembly  ball  cited, 
92.  . 

Berkshires,  modern  architecture 
in,  35,  36. 

Beau  Brummel,  quoted,  148. 

Blickling  Hall,  168. 

Biltmore,  North  Carolina,  52, 
167. 

Bond  Street,  N.  Y.  City,  No.  2^, 
99-101. 

Boston,  Mass.,  Scarcity  of  Colo- 
nial houses  in,  68. 

Bramante,  architect,  45,  122. 

Brandon,  Va.,  mentioned,  63. 

Brice-Jennings  house,  Annapolis, 
mentioned,  63. 

Bristol,  R.  I.,  68,  80-82;  Capt. 
Churchill  house  (house  with 
the  eagles),  81;  doorways,  82; 
De  Wolf-Colt  house,  80,  81  ; 
De  Wolf-Middleton  house,  81, 
82  ;  Norris  house,  81. 


174 


Index 


Brown,  Albert  F.,  book  on  early  scarcity    of    good    ones,     169; 

Connecticut  houses,  57.  ultra-fashionable,  130. 

Browning  the  poet  mcnlioncd,  95,  Colonial  revival,  128- 30. 

98.  Colonnade,  N.  Y.  City,  104-6. 

Burns.  Robert,  cottage  of.  53.  Congress    at     ISerlin,     reference. 

I-23- 
Connecticut,  early  houses  in.  57. 

(CANTERBURY     Keys,     Wyo-  59. 

ming,  N.  J.,  139.  Country    house    for    Mrs.    H.    al 

"Capitol  at  Washington,  71,  134.  Morristown,  144. 

Carlyle  house  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  Country   Life,   the   English   peri- 

71  ;  adaptation  of,  71.  odical.    51;     illustration     from. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  cited,  108.  52. 

Carrere  and  Hastings,  extension  Cupolas    (see   chapter    Reign    of 

designed  by,  122.  Terror.    108)    correctly   placed. 

Centennial   Exposition,   its   intlu-  153. 

ence,  118,  120,  125.  Curious  analogy  between  art  anil 


nature,  89. 
Cypress    as   a   building   material, 
147- 


Charity,   its   relation  to  architec- 
ture, 38,  39;  anatomy  of,  107. 

Charlecote  Hall.  139. 

Chambord,  chateau  of.  143;  men- 
tioned. 145. 

Charm  not   deducihle  by  malhe-  [)KLAF1ELD    house    on    Long 

matics,  61.  Island,  7 --??>■ 

Chase    house,    Annapolis,     men-  Dickens,   Charles,   his   criticisms, 

tioned,  63.  89-91  ;  quoted,  108. 

Chenonceau,  chateau  of.  143-^44-  Don   Juan,   quotations    from.   49. 

Chew  house,  Gerniantown,  6g.  ~'?<. 

Chopin,     etude     by,     cited,     67;  Du    Barry,    Madam,    mentioned, 

quoted,  106.  79- 

Coles  house,  Farmington,  Conn.,  Durham,    Conn.,    Miles    Merwin 

23.  house,  46-48. 

Colonial   houses    in    Switzerland,  Dutch    influences    in    New    York 

147.  and  New  Jersey,  59. 

Colonial    houses,    modern,     154;  D'Israeli,  his  use  of  flattery.  170. 

175 


Index 


£ARLY  Renaissance  of  Eng- 
land, book  by  Gotch,  i-io. 

Eastlake  School  of  Design.  1 19- 
20. 

Eclectic  style,  its  fallacy  in  archi- 
tecture, 20. 

Ecole  des  Beaux  '  Arts,  Paris, 
121,  142;  graduates  of.  143. 

Efflorescence    of    commercialism, 

85- 
Elmington,   Gloucester   Co.,   Va., 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  men- 
tioned, 95. 

English  Renaissance  under  the 
Georges,  124.  140;  a  vast  treas- 
ure house,  77 ;  various  other 
allusions,  22-27,  51-53,  61,  77, 
96,  138-41,  168. 

pANCIFUL  houses   (see  Reign 

of  Terror),   108. 
Farmhouse,  modern,  49,  50. 
Farmington,  Conn.,  Coles  house, 

23- 
Field  of  art  an  enchanted  garden, 

149. 
Financier  architects,  164. 
Financiers,  their  love  of  flowers, 

t6o;      their      influence      upon 

American  Renaissance,   131. 
Flat-iron  Building,  N.  Y.  City,  2,7. 
Florence,  Italy,  mentioned,  28. 
Fontainebleau,    Chateau    of,    135, 

142,  145. 


Ford    Mansion,    Morristown,    N. 

J..  75- 

Fouquet,  minister  of  Louis  XIV, 
mentioned,  44. 

Fourth  Street,  N.  Y.  City,  door- 
way, 99. 

French  Renaissance,  123-24,  135, 
142-44. 

French  Revolution  cited,  79,  108. 

QABRIEL.  architect,  mentioned, 
144. 

George.  Henry,  cited.  109. 

Germantown,  Pa.,  70;  Colonial 
houses  in,  69,  70  ;  Alorris  house, 
69;  Wyck,  60,  61,  69;  Stenton- 
in-the-fields,  69 ;  Wister  house, 
69. 

Gerry,  jNIrs.,  engages  Mr.  Hunt 
to  be  her  architect,  124. 

Girondists    and    mountain    cited, 

113- 
Gloucester  Co.,  Va..  7^,  74. 
Gotch's     Early     Renaissance     in 

England,  140. 
Gothic  architecture,  in  wood,  24, 

recommended  by  Ruskin,  95-97. 
Grace   Church,  N.   Y.   City.   134; 

rectory.  96-97. 

Y{.  jMRS.,  her  house  at  Morris- 
town,  N.  J.,  144. 
Haddon  Hall,  138. 
Hackensack.  N.  J.,  old  house  in. 
60. 


176 


Index 


Hallcck,  I'~itz-Greene,  105. 

Hampton  Court,  Wolsey  palace, 
141;  South  palace,  141. 

Hancock  house,  Boston,  men- 
tioned, 68. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  mentioned.  S3. 

Harwood  house.  AnnapoHs,  men- 
tioned, 6,^. 

Hawthorne,  Nat'l.  reference,  8,^ 

Historical  succession  in  architec- 
ture, 1x6. 

Hone,  Philii).  diary  of,  91-04. 

Hoods,  Dutch,  59,  60;  German- 
town,  59,  60. 

House  Beautiful,  articles  in. 
cited,  80,  82,  137,  1.^9. 

House  with  the  eagles,  Bristol. 
R.  I.,  81. 

How  to  make  a  successful  house, 
reference,  137. 

Humiewell  Gardens,  cited.  53. 

Hunt,  Richard  M..  architect,  tjo- 
'      24. 

JNVENTED  architecture.  30-33, 

1 14- 1 6. 
Irving,   Washington,   105-7:    Life 

and  Letters,  mentioned.  107. 
Isham,     Norman     M.,     hook     on 

early  Connecticut   houses.  57. 
Italian  villas,  cited,  iio-ii. 
Italian  jialaces.  135. 

J.\CKSON,  Andrew,  41,  48.  50. 
Jacoliean  architecture,  adapta- 


tion, 168;  Renaissance,  refer- 
ence, 25,  41. 

Jacobin,  architecture,  41  ;  see  also 
Reign  of  Terror,  108. 

Jones,  Inigo,  mentioned,  44,  136. 

Jumel  mansion,  N.  V.  City,  68. 

l^IDD,     Capt.,     treasure,     refer- 
ence, 109. 
Kingdcr,  Summit,  N.  J.,  adapted 

from    the    Swiss    Gothic,    147- 

48. 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  read  for  style, 

150. 
Kullak,    the    musician,    anecdote 

concerning,  54;  mentioned,  56. 

[^.\DD  house,  Portsmouth,  X. 
H.,  mentioned,  68. 

Lambton  Castle,  137-38. 

Langdon,  Gov.,  house,  Ports- 
mouth, N.   II.,  mentioned,  68. 

Le  Nepveu.  Pierre,  architect, 
cited,  143. 

Le  Notre,  landscape  gardener, 
reference,  80. 

Lescot,    Pierre,    architect,    cited, 

144- 
Library   of  Congress,  mentioned. 

71- 
Lines,  their  effect  upon  the  mind, 

116. 
Litchjield,   Conn.,   75 ;    Demming 

house.  75 ;  Hoppin  house,  ~l. 
London  Terrace.  104-5. 


177 


Index 


Looking     Backward,     reference, 

100. 

Louis  XIV,  44,  135;  J.  \\.  Man- 
sart's  influence  upon,  164-65. 

Louvre,  Paris,  135,  142;  carica- 
tured, 146. 

Love's  Labor's  Lost,  quotation 
from,  67. 

Lower  Fifth  Avenue,  houses  on, 
104. 

"^AN  cannot  live  by  bread 
alone,"  cited,  117. 

Manhattan,  congestion  of,  31. 

Mansart,  Frangois,  mentioned, 
146. 

Mansart,  Jules  Hardouin,  135 ; 
described  by  Saint  Simon,  165. 

Marble  house,  Newport,  criti- 
cised, 167. 

Martin  Chuzzlewit,  mentioned, 
46;  criticisms  in,  89,  91-92. 

Marvel,  Ik,  quoted,  34. 

Mclntyre,  Samuel,  architect,  43. 

McPhjedris  house,  Portsmouth, 
N.  H.,  66,  67,  153- 

Medici,  Lorenzo  de,  court  of, 
mentioned,  28. 

Metal  window  frames,  139. 

Michelangelo,  architect,  44,  45, 
122,  136. 

Middletown,  Conn.,  68,  84;  de 
Zeng  house,  103-4;  house  on 
High  Street,  97 ;  Watkinson 
house,     23,     84,     85 ;     Sumner 


house,    57;     Mansfield     house, 

84. 
Miss    Polly    Fairfax,    quotation, 

61. 
Mitchell  cottage.  East  Orange,  N. 

J-  153. 
Modern    American    dwelling,   61, 

153- 
Modern  obtrusion  in  a  Colonial 

house,  131. 
Moliere,      anecdote      concerning, 

154-55- 
Monticello,  Va.,  74. 
Montpelier,  Va.,  74. 
Morris  house,  Germantown,  69. 
Morris  house,  Philadelphia,  70. 
^lorristown,     N.    J.,    75 ;     Ford 

mansion,  75 ;  house  at,  144. 
Mouldings,  Eastlake  School,  119. 
r^It.   Vernon-on-the-Potomac,  71- 

7i,  153- 

"^EW  Art  reference,  29,  78. 
New  Bedford,  Mass.,  its  most 
interesting  landmark,  102. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  mentioned, 
84. 

Newly-invented  architecture,  30- 
T,T,.  1 14-16. 

Newport,  its  congestion,  53 ;  H. 
A.  C.  Taylor  house,  130,  169; 
Edgar  house,  169 ;  marble 
house,  167 ;  Ochre  Court,  167. 

New  York  City,  absence  of  Colo- 
nial relics  in,  68 ;  Washington 


Index 


Square,  North,  22,  104;  Wal- 
ton house,  68;  Waterbury 
house,  104;  Colonnade,  104-6; 
23  Bond  Street,  99-101  ;  door- 
way on  East  Fourth  Street,  99 ; 
congestion  in,  31  ;  injured  l)y 
commercialism,  37;  houses  in 
lower  Fifth  Avenue,  104;  Flat- 
iron  Building,  T,y. 
Niecks'  Life  of  Chopin,  quoted, 
106. 

QCHRE  Court,  Newport,  men- 
tioned, 167. 
Open  timbered  work,  139. 
Osmaston  Manor,  Derbyshire,  52. 

pALLADIAN  windows,  130. 
Palladio,  architect,  26,  44. 

Pare  aux  cerfs,  83. 

Paris  cabinet  makers,  95. 

Patina  on  Swiss  chalets,  147. 

Patti,   Adelina,  and  the   musical 
critics,  61. 

Peacock   Inn,   Derbyshire,   refer- 
ence, 25. 

Pecksniff,      architect,      character 
from  Dickens,  166. 

Pennsylvania,    German    influence 
in,  59- 

Pepys,  Samuel,  diary  of,  91. 

Perrault,  Claude,  architect,  men- 
tioned, 144. 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Colonial  houses 
in.  70;  aristocratic  section,  85, 


86;  backbuildings,  86-88;  pe- 
culiarity of  architecture  in,  85- 
87;  municipal  buildings  cari- 
cature of  Louvre,  146;  Mor- 
ris house,  70;  Roberts  house, 
103-4;  restoration  of  an  old 
house  in,  86;  Willstack  house 
mentioned,  103;  Dundas-Lip- 
pincott  house,  103. 
Pickering    house,    Salem,    Mass., 

25- 
Poe,  Edgar  Allen,  quoted,  :-,2,  i^; 

Poems,  106. 
Poor,  H.  W.,  House  at  Tuxedo, 

N.  Y.,  52,  168. 
Portland,     Conn.,     quarries     at, 

84. 
Portsmouth,    N.    IF,    66-68,    70; 

McPhsedris  house,  66,  67,  153; 

Ladd  house,  68 ;  Gov.  Langdon 

house,  68;  Rockingham  Hotel, 

66. 
Princessgate,    Wyoming,    N.    J., 

154- 

Providence,  R.  L,  83;  Mme. 
Brown  mansion  on  Benefit 
Street,  35. 

Psychological  needs  of  domestic 
architecture,  61,  116. 

Psychological  preparation  to  un- 
derstand architecture,  19. 

QUARTERED   oak,   toughness 

of,  97- 
Queen  Anne  architecture,  125-28. 


179 


Index 


Queen  Anne  and  Romanesque 
composite  style,  127. 

Queen  Anne  house  at  Short 
Hills,  N.  J.,  126. 

Queen  Anne  house  ultra-fashion- 
able, 126. 

J^ANDALL,  T.  Henry,  archi- 
tect, article  by,  referred  to,  62  ; 
architect  of  Mr.  Poor's  house, 
168-69. 

Renwick,  James,  architect,  men- 
tioned, 134. 

Restoration  of  houses  in  Phila- 
delphia, 86. 

Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,  quoted,  34. 

Rich  young  man  in   Bible,  cited, 

39- 
Richardson,  H.  H.,  architect,  2y- 

29,  120. 
Richmond-Dow    house,    Warren, 

R.  I.,  97- 
Robespierre,  his  love  of  flowers, 

159- 
Rockingham   Hotel,   Portsmouth, 

N.  H.,  66. 
Rococo  style,  cited,  119. 
Roland,  Madam,  quoted,  146. 
Romanesque  architecture,  28,  120. 
Roofs,  French  Renaissance,  144; 

gambrel,  60;  Mansart,  117. 
Rosewell,  Gloucester  Co.,  Va.,  72)- 
Ruskin,     Jolin,      25 ;      advocates 

Gothic       architecture,       95-98; 

mentioned,    135. 


SABINE  Hall,  74. 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  London, 
cited,  yy. 

St.  Peter's  Cathedral,  Rome,  45 ; 
an  adaptation,  141. 

Saint-Simon,  Memoirs  of,  quoted, 
135.  165-66. 

San  Marco,  Library  of,  142. 

Sansovino,  architect,  references, 
26,  142. 

Salem,  ]\Iass.,  24,  68,  70,  82; 
Derby-Ward  house,  55 ;  Pick- 
ering house,  25 ;  Capt.  White 
house,  83. 

Scammozzi,  architect,  reference, 
26. 

Scaramouch  houses.  See  chap- 
ter. Reign  of  Terror,  108, 
117. 

Scarlet  Letter  morals,  55. 

Schopfer,  Jean,  articles  by,  147. 

Schuyler,    Montgomery,    quoted, 
122. 

Searles     cottage.     Block     Island, 

I5-2-54- 
Sesame  and  Lilies,  98. 
Sharon,  Conn.,  36;  John   Cotton 

Smith   house,    t,6,   T,y. 
Shingles,  wide  gauge,  50. 
Shirley,  Va.,  cited,  63,  74. 
Skyscrapers,   ^y ;    recipe    for,    30, 

31- 
Southgate,     Eliza,     Letters     of, 

quoted,  y2. 
Staccato  style,  122. 


Index 


Stentoii  -  in  -  tlie  -  liclds.      Gcriiian- 

tovvn,  not  pretty,  69. 
Stratford,    Conn.,    old    house    in, 

59- 
Stunts,  architectural,  44. 
Sturgis,  Russell,  mentioned,  43. 
Style,   architectural,   see   Chapter 

XI,  149. 
Style    an    architectural    comedy, 

155- 
Sunswick,  Dclaficld  house.  Long 

Island,  72,  73. 
Swiss     chalets,     25 ;     travestied, 

120;  adaptation  of,  146. 

J   SQUARES  and  triangles  un- 
sympathetic, 61. 
Tadema,  Alma,  mentioned,  ^2. 
Tale  of  Two  Cities,  quoted,  loS. 
Talmage,    Dr.,    his    comment    on 

Queen  Anne  architecture,  127. 
Temperament,  artist,  156-61. 
Through       the       Looking-glass, 

quoted,  46. 
Todshury,    Gloucester    Co.,    Va., 

73- 

Tomhs,  royal,  at  Westminster, 
mentioned,  47. 

Trihune  Building.  New  York- 
City,  123. 

Trinity  Church,  Boston,  27,  28. 

Trinity  Church,  New  York  City, 
cited,  134. 

Tudor  castles,  96,  138. 

Tuxedo.  N.  Y.,  H.  \V.  Poor 
house.  52.  16S. 


Twonibly,  II.  McK.  mentioned, 
122. 

IJLALUME.  quoted,  32,  33- 
L'pjohn,    arcliitect,    reference, 

VANDERBILT,  Cornelius,  124. 
Vanderbilt,  \V.  K.,  house  of, 
1.23,  135- 

Vaux  le  Vicomte,  mentioned,  44. 

Versailles,  mentioned,  80,  135. 

Victorian-Gothic,  120-22. 

Viollet-le-Duc,  architect,  refer- 
ence. 143. 

Voyage  of  Life,  series  of  paint- 
ings 93- 

WALTON  house,  X.  Y.  City, 
mentioned,  68. 

Ward,  Harry,  and  liis  house,  99- 
lOI. 

Ware,  Prof.  W.  R.,  his  philos- 
ophy, 162. 

Warren.  Russell.  43.  80. 

Washington,  George,  his  taste  in 
architecture.  73. 

Washington.  D.  C.  90:  Capitol 
at.  71.  134:  Library  of  Con- 
gress. 71. 

Washington  Square.  North,  N. 
Y.  City,  22.  104. 

Westover,  Va.,  mentioned,  6^. 

White.  Fred'k  B.,  architect,  126. 

Wliitemarsh,  Gloucester  Co.,  Va., 
7^- 


iSi 


Index 

Wiscasset,    Maine,    Gov.    Smith  Wormeley,     Katharine     P.,     her 

house,  19.  translation  of  Saint-Simon,  164. 

Witch-Colonial  exemplars,  54,  57.  Wren,    Sir    Christopher,   25,   26; 

mentioned,  2y,  44,  136,  141. 

Witch-house,    modern,    plan    of,  Wyck,  Germantown,  Pa.,  60,  61, 

58.  69. 

Witches,  Salem,  83. 

Wolfert's       Roost,      Tarrytown,  YANKEE,  the,  U.  S.  privateer, 

mentioned,  106.  81. 


182 


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